Born Of Anger
by Belicia Zarita
Summary: Ironheade has won their freedom, and everyone has settled into new and happy lives. But there are still demons to be found, and they want a new leader...a descendent of the fiercest and most bloodthirsty warrior they know...but not who anyone expected...
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: If you're curious, the title comes from the song "Born of Anger" by Chris Jericho's group Fozzy. Look them up, you might find something interesting...

( )

Lita Halford had some time to ponder as she was riding up the mountainside, and it was mostly about how much she had come to truly appreciate vehicles. Without them, this trip that was taking about an hour could have easily lasted the better part of a day, and have been far more dangerous and uncomfortable a trek. Cars made it so one could just ride wherever one needed in a short amount of time, and resting on a seat as plush as one could make it with just a little extra stuffing.

Right now, she and Mangus were in her car...a cherry red recreation of Eddie's, though with a roof built over the top...and traveling their way up the frozen mountainside that ran along the former site of General Lionwhyte's Pleasure Tower. Mangus took his appointment as the Queen's chauffeur rather seriously, although Lita sometimes felt she would have preferred to learn how to drive herself; at the same time, it made Mangus happy and made him feel useful, so she simply bit her lip and kept her opinions to herself. That was something new for her, but she'd promised Eddie that it was something she would work on.

Eddie Riggs, the half-Coil roadie from the future, was the entire reason she was even on this little excursion in the first place. Though it had taken a little coaxing, he'd finally accepted a position as her royal adviser...but for whatever reason he insisted on something of a reclusive lifestyle despite that fact. In fact, the place he had taken as his new home seemed, at least to her, to have been purposely chosen to be as far away from the main civilizations of all the others as possible, nearly equal distances from Bladehenge, the Zaulia jungles, and the Fire Barons' enclave at the top of Death's Clutch. Of course, she knew the obvious answer was simply that Eddie had decided to live in the shadow of his father Riggnarok's statue, but even given for that, the area was simply so inhospitable that she frequently wondered about his thought process when it came to arriving at the decision. (She supposed maybe it wasn't so inhospitable for him; being a demon halfling probably made him a bit sturdier than most, but she didn't dwell on that thought.)

What this meant for her, though, was that whenever she needed him to actually advise her on something, or to help out with something, or _whatever_, she had to pack up for a drive to go and visit...and considering how often he was away from the small stone cottage he had constructed in that area, she usually found herself needing to wait around for him to get back from whatever bizarre adventure he'd taken off on this time. Particularly annoying were the times she sought his insight to a particular situation going on in the world only to discover on his return that he'd simply handled it already himself, without really needing her involvement at all.

Lita loved Eddie, she knew that. She'd gotten the notion during the last days of the Second Rebellion, as they'd come to call their great war, that her feelings for him might be something more than the feeling a woman would have for the man who was responsible for the liberation of her people. She might have had those feelings longer, if not for the sudden revelation that Ophelia was still alive, and Eddie, who had held out that hope all along, was still obviously in love with her. But Lita knew better than to try and interfere in that, so those feelings had been quietly squashed and she had returned to loving him merely as an extraordinarily talented peer and very good friend.

And sure, when he and Ophelia had come to her, told her what Doviculus had told Eddie of his heritage, for a while she'd been torn about what to think. Demons were evil, without exception, in her experience...and for a while she'd really had to struggle to come to terms with the fact that Eddie's bizarre shape-changing wasn't a strange side-effect of demon poison. But eventually, either through reason or rationale, it was clear that Eddie considered himself human...albeit a human with some unusual powers. He despised the demons with a passion, and it seemed obvious the issue of his mother caused him some conflicting emotions. Besides, he didn't try to hide it, he wasn't that type of guy, and the simple fact that he admitted to it gave credence that he had no intentions of exploiting it in any way. And even after he'd told many of the Ironheade army the same thing, and clearly expected some issue from doing so, almost no one had really had much to say about it. Quite the opposite, it had actually only added to the aura of awesomeness and heroic stature that followed the roadie wherever he went. Which made sense...he was a man who had kick-started a war to free humans from demons, brought all of them out of horrible situations into a place to fight for their freedom, and then granted it to them by slaying the leader of the monsters himself. Even the Artifacts of Legend proclaimed that the fact that Eddie was part demonic directly led to his being able to free them from the oppression they had long toiled under.

No, she didn't much like it, but Lita knew that to turn her back on Eddie for that would only be repeating the mistake of judgment she'd made before, with Ophelia. And all of that aside, she still loved Eddie as a dear friend. The matter of his parentage would just have to be a non-issue.

But even with all that good will, she was often frustrated by the roadie's peculiarities and tendency to want to do things on his own. He had said once that he knew nothing about being a leader, although he had taken the helm of their battles very well. But for normal, day-to-day activities that didn't involve coordination of the army or construction of buildings or vehicles, he was sort of...flaky, at best, downright irresponsible at worst, seeming to prefer to go off rather than stay and do any work that wasn't "roadie-ing" as he put it. He fell asleep in meetings with the Baron, Killmaster and Rima, wandered off from scouting stints to ride around on whatever wild animal happened past, and after they somehow ended up with a fountain filled with Raptor Elk blood instead of kegs from the Sacred Beer Tree at one celebration, asking him to handle delegation of anything beyond battle or concerts was a nightmare Lita didn't care to repeat. (Eddie insisted he would have gotten it right if Lita had just let him do it himself, she had insisted on his learning to depute things outside of music or war...and regretted it ever since.)

Still, he was an extremely valuable ally to her even now, as his popularity amongst the citizens of the world made it so that the people would do nearly anything for him. She herself wasn't hated by any means, but Lita knew perfectly well that if it had been up to everyone else, Eddie would have become the new King of Bladehenge. Instead, he'd thrown his support behind her immediately, proclaiming that she was the ruler Lars would have wanted. And now, nearly a year later, things were still relatively peaceful and harmonious in their lands.

And simply enough, when it really came down to the crunch, Eddie was always there when she really and truly _needed_him, and in the end she supposed that was all she really was worried about.

None of this stopped her from letting out a huff of annoyance as they pulled up to Eddie's domicile to discover that his car was gone from it's garage, which meant he was off yet again. "Goddamnit," she grumbled, resting her head against the window next to her. "I was hoping we could make it quick today."

"You know better than to expect Eddie to be quick about anything that's not cars, construction, or battle," Mangus said good-naturedly, parking their transport and quickly getting out, hurrying around to open the door for her.

"You don't have to do that for me, Mangus," Lita said, stepping out of the car, though a bit of a smile still played on her face.

"Well, you're the queen, it's the least I can do," Mangus replied, a wide grin on his face as he swung the door shut for her, then offered her an arm as though to escort her. "Besides, even if you ain't the queen, you're still my lady."

Lita chuckled, then rather playfully took hold of Mangus's arm as they approached the cobblestone house that was practically built into the base of Riggnarok's statue.

Lita imagined that the majority of Bladehenge had been absolutely baffled by her choice of Mangus as a consort several months after the end of the Second Rebellion, but if they had been paying much attention, it might not have come as such a shock. Eddie, Mangus and herself had been the three at the head of the war all along, with Eddie basically fielding orders for everything through the two of them. And during the long periods of time that Eddie had for one reason or another during the rebellion had to leave the main forces behind, she and Mangus had been essentially forced to come together and work to keep everything going. At first, she hadn't thought much of Mangus, as he'd more or less fallen into his position by dint of being the one standing next to Lars when an "engineer" was needed. But it hadn't taken very long for Lita to discover that despite his appearance and bizarre habits, Mangus was in fact a highly responsible and diligent worker, nearly as skilled with his hands as Eddie and bright enough to be able to quickly grasp whatever plans were given to him. Even that unfortunate thing with the diaper, Lita eventually came to realize, was simply Mangus's desire, however improperly handled, to do everything he could for Ironheade.

In the time since, Mangus had gradually moved from being Eddie's right-hand man to being Lita's, running necessary errands, maintaining lines of communication between all the pockets of civilization across the land, and even when necessary, taking command of delegations when Lita couldn't get away for whatever reason. And gradually, she'd come to respect him, and then, to like him, and finally, to care for him, with the feelings developing to be mutual. Though officially, he was simply the royal chauffeur, unofficially he handled a great deal more.

Even as she was psyching herself up for a long wait, Lita heard a sound that pleased her immensely...the sound of a car roaring up the path from the direction of the jungles. "Looks like for once our timing was perfect," she said, turning to look in that direction.

"For once," Mangus agreed. "Good thing too since we didn't think to bring anything warm to wear."

Lita waved a hand dismissively, going to the door at the front of the small house and leaning against it, just waiting. Thus far there were only a few cars in existence...Eddie's, her own, and one or two that had been made for general use...the motorcycles belonging to the Fire Barons or Killmaster and his man sounded vastly different, and since the end of the war, the tour bus had only been moved a time or two for maintenance. Some of the Headbangers were at work harvesting more parts to start making more vehicles, but for now, that was all that had come to be. So this pretty much had to be the Deuce. Lita moved to lean against the wall of the house, crossing her arms...and behind her, the door came open, and a slightly amused voice came from within. "Somethin' I can help you with, your majesty?"

She nearly lost her balance when the door open, and turned quickly, eyes wide, to see Eddie Riggs, half-demon roadie, standing in the doorway of his home, dressed rather casually in a pair of ratty old jeans and a sleeveless black T-shirt, long black hair matted and wild, looking for all the world as though he had just rolled out of bed. "Eddie? But then who's driving the car?"

Eddie chuckled slightly, rubbing his eyes, then turning his gaze to the path as the Deuce came from around a corner in the road. Lita was able to swiftly recognize the brunette behind the wheel, even as the woman peeled the car around the corner and pulled it into the driveway beside Lita's car, parking it and hopping out quickly, a bundle of something wrapped in leather in her arms.

"Ophelia," Lita said, nodding her head slightly as the other woman approached. Ophelia could normally be found wearing her T-shirt and jeans, but since coming here to live with Eddie, her dressing had, more through necessity than anything, become a bit more modest, tending towards cloaks and shawls over her usual uniform. Again, that came from the area in which she had chosen to live, alongside her beau.

"Lita," Ophelia replied with the same brief nod to the woman, a little bit nicer as she addressed the man beside her. "Mangus."

"Yo," Mangus replied, with a bit of a gestured salute and a warm smile.

The two women had never particularly liked each other, for a great many reasons, and even though they had made their peace after the war was over, they still had no real sense of friendship for each other. But after long talks about the nature of Ophelia's supposed betrayal and lots of coaxing from Eddie and Mangus, the girls had been able to at least gain civility, though thus far not too much beyond that.

But Ophelia actually gave a bit of a smile to Lita as she approached, to all of them, in fact. "Guess who's pregnant?" she said happily.

There was a brief pause, before Mangus turned his gaze to Eddie, who was still rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Anything you'd like to confess, boss?"

"Oh, not us," Eddie said with a faint chuckle. "No, Ophs has made it clear that we have a while to go before children."

Lita, however, actually seemed to be contemplating the question before smiling back at Ophelia. "So Rima and Kage finally have a baby on the way!"

"You better believe it!" Ophelia replied, grinning. "Killmaster confirmed it yesterday!" The two women, cool though their relationship might be, actually shared an excited squeal over this news, causing Eddie and Mangus to share bemused glances.

"Gotta say, Kage is the last guy I'd have ever expected Rima to hook up with," Mangus finally said to Eddie, as the two women momentarily babbled together with excitement.

Eddie shrugged a bit, reaching up to try and straighten his hair out a bit, apparently more from habit than any real desire to make it look better. "Well, she was always on the prowl for...uh...someone strong. And he and his mortar did spend a lot of time defending the temple for them while they were helping us out." A pause. "Besides, the last guy she'd hook up with would have been the Baron."

"Oh yeah, good point."

The girls apparently regained their awareness of their situation, and Ophelia made her way past Lita, carrying the leather bundle to Eddie, holding it out just a bit to show him. "Speaking of Rima, here's that Hextadon hide you asked her to finish."

"Oh, awesome. You let her know I'd fix the drum pyro in exchange, right?"

"She said you didn't have to, but I insisted." Ophelia made a faint chuckling sound as she scooched past him and into the house, heading towards the back.

Eddie stepped back with a bit of a shrug, motioning for Mangus and Lita to come in as well. "No reason to stand out in the cold, c'mon in here. I was just lighting a fire."

Lita shook her head somewhat. "Nothing that intense, Eddie. I just wanted to ask you if you could come by the Screaming Wall this afternoon. We need to repair some of the speakers for the stage and you're the only one who can get at the ones we need."

"So you drove all the way out here to let me know you're gonna need me to fly to the top of the Screaming Wall for amps?" Eddie's voice was more amused than annoyed, though there was a tinge of the latter emotion to it as well. "You're going to actually let me fly, right, you're not gonna try and make me arrange a committee to build an enormous ladder to get up there?"

"We already tried that-," Mangus started to say, but Lita elbowed him in the ribs hard before he could say much more, casting him a look of irritation, though Eddie was already grinning more from the words.

"Right. So you need me and my good ol' wings to go do the job ourselves." He chuckled a bit. "Now see, Lita, if you'd just let me do more stuff on my own, we wouldn't have so many problems."

"I'm not having this conversation with you again, Eddie...at least not right now. So, do you think you'll be able to make it out today?" Lita responded, immediately reverting to her "cool and queenly" tone of voice.

Eddie snorted a bit. "Lita, you're the queen, you're the only reason I ever have anything to do besides screw around. If you need me there this afternoon, I'll be there this afternoon."

Lita nodded, and let the littlest hint of a smile come back to her face. "All right, thanks, Eddie. I owe you one."

"Nahhh." Eddie waved a hand a bit dismissively, turning his gaze to the red car Lita had traveled up in. "Bloody Mary still running fine?"

"She's doin' great, boss, I'm takin' real good care of her," Mangus replied happily, and Eddie nodded with an unusually smug face, holding up his fist, which Mangus punched back lightly, in some sort of affectionate male gesture Lita had yet to figure out the significance of. Though she was fascinated by cars, Eddie and Mangus, when they got together, could spend hours chatting together about every last little aspect of the engines, the wheels, the paint, and things Lita couldn't even make out the names of, the men bantered about them so quickly.

"All right. Well, if you don't wanna stay for breakfast, you might want to head out before you both freeze to death," Eddie said with a chuckle. "I'll meet you at the Screaming Wall after lunchtime, how about that? That'll give me some time to come help with rigging up the new stuff on the stage too."

"That sounds perfect," Lita said, nodding again, as Mangus turned to start for the car. "See you in a few hours then, Eddie."

The roadie waved with a somewhat sleepy smile, then retreated back into his house, closing the door quickly behind him.

"He's about to go back to bed, isn't he?" Lita asked, as she and Mangus made their way back to the red vehicle.

"Probably...but he'll be sure to catch up. This is something he can handle just fine." Mangus chuckled, running to open the door for Lita, waiting for her to settle into the car before closing the door and coming around to get into the vehicle. "Don't worry, Lita, he'll be on time."

"Yeah...you're right." Lita settled back into her seat, looking out at the passing scenery again as they started on their way back up the mountain to work back around and to Bladehenge. She had a long day of work ahead of her in their blossoming village, to keep building it into something bigger and better, and she was just glad now that this errand had gone off without a hitch. With luck, the rest of the day would be the same.


	2. Chapter 2

Lita stared down the pathway towards the Screaming Wall, standing next to the tour bus. She hadn't really expected Mangus to bring it, but he had rightly pointed out that as long as they were here, they should go ahead and get spare amps to keep at Bladehenge so they wouldn't need to make this trip more than necessary. And then upon seeing the bus getting ready to make a trip, quite a number of Headbangers, Razorgirls, and Bouncers had made come running, wanting to take a ride "for old time's sake." So what had started out as a simple equipment gathering excursion had quickly turned into a giant field trip, complete with kegs loaded, blankets being spread out, and food being shared for a community picnic.

She supposed there was no harm in it...the girls had brought their weapons, as had she, and of course the guys were always ready for battle. There were still a few roving packs of Drowning Doom members, or, far more likely, angry wandering Tollusks, so keeping prepared was a necessity. And everyone had promised to help with the loading and unloading both ways. So she merely stood aside and watched for Eddie and Ophelia's arrival while her subjects enjoyed themselves. Mangus himself was actually not partaking in the festivities at the moment, he was currently under the bus with his best mechanic, a Headbanger named Jack, and they were wrenching away at something under there, and for the time being, she just left him to it.

Fortunately, today everyone's timing seemed to be ideal. They'd only been here about half an hour before she saw the Deuce in the distance, speeding towards them. She stepped back around to the front of the bus, letting Eddie pull in beside them. He and Ophelia, both now in their usual working clothes, were apparently laughing about something as they pulled up, and both leapt out of the car as it came to a stop.

"Afternoon, queen Lita," Eddie said, still grinning widely.

"What's got you two in such a good mood?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ophelia and Eddie traded a look, which was enough to set them both off laughing again, Ophelia actually leaning against the side of the bus to brace herself up. "S-sorry Lita..." she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "We...we got to talking about Rima and Kage...and the baby..."

"And...and Ophs said...said she hoped Rima took off her arm spikes before she tried to hold it...and I got this mental image of Kage trying to hand her the kid..." He held out his hands, though balled up in fists, as though trying to awkwardly juggle something that way.

Both of them immediately got hysterical again, although Lita merely raised an eyebrow at them. She supposed it was a mildly humorous thought, though not quite to the level of mirth these two were displaying. But then again, it wouldn't be the first time the two of them were laughing at something that she just didn't get.

After a minute or two, though, they finally calmed down enough to be able to speak normally. "Uh, sorry about that, Lita. You know how it is...you just get to laughing and can't stop," Eddie said, with a bit of a goofy grin.

"Uh-huh," Lita replied, though as much as she tried to keep a stern look on her face, the barest bit of a smile cracked through. "Let's go get these amps, huh?"

"Lead the way," Eddie said with a bit of a salute, and the three of them moved forward, calling out to other members of Ironheade to get ready to get on their way.

( )

A distance beyond, high on the cliffs above even the Screaming Wall, something was watching as the Ironheade troops began to move along the wall, taking care around the powerful amps and bits of lava that occasionally broke loose. None of them were aware of the silent watchers, they were too busy chatting, laughing, and generally having a good time.

At the front of the group was who they had come to observe. The son of Succoria, the Axe Wielder, he who had slain their previous emperor, was leading the humans forward, the weapon resting on his back, crossed with the familiar and deadly guitar. He and the blonde woman, the human leader, were talking and gesturing to the speakers, apparently discussing which sets they were going to harvest. Finally, after just a bit of walking, the group halted, and The Axe Wielder stepped away. Immediately, his change began. His skin darkened, and hardened. His hands formed talons, short and stubby, his hair toned from the darkest shade of brown to a deep blood red. From his back thrust two expansive clawed wings, webbed with red...and even from this distance, the glowing gold of his eyes was visible. He took off into the air, flying up to the very top of the Screaming Wall, landing next to a bank of speakers and fiddling with them a moment, then detaching a large bank, momentarily faltering under the weight before bringing the large group of amps back to the ground, setting them down for the humans to gather and return to their large transport, even as he took off to get more.

"Our new emperor is near," the leader of this observing group growled softly to the congregation behind him. "We must liberate the son of Succoria from the humans in order to regain what is rightfully our's."

There was a general hiss of agreement, a shuffling and wave of motion from the assembled mass behind him. Their leader nodded forward. "Let us make this our final charge. We will rebuild our hierarchy and our race will be reborn!" He pointed one long, thin, bony finger forward. "Bring me the son, so that we may begin our ceremony..."

The amassed creatures let loose another hushed declaration, and the group surged forward, deceptively silent, rushing in an awkward formation towards the relaxed Ironheade group.

( )

Eddie brought down another bank of speakers, adding them to the pile he'd already harvested, but stayed on the ground this time, looking up. "Not many seagulls out today. Usually you can't walk through here without getting a few dozen of them in your hair."

"It is a little weird," the Headbanger next to him said, lifting up one of the amps and turning to start carrying it back to the bus. "But who's complaining?"

Eddie shook his head slightly, glancing around, something that didn't escape Lita or Ophelia's notice. "Eddie, what's up?" Ophelia asked, looking up from where she was untangling a seagull's cord nest from the top of a previously brought down amp.

"I don't know, just...it's awful quiet. There aren't any animals around...not the seagulls, not any Tollusks, not even a ground urchin. It's weird."

"Well it's not like they've learned to avoid you or anything," Lita said, helping a pair of Razorgirls lift an amp so they could start carrying it back to the bus. "You do periodically run around slaughtering masses of them."

"Hey...I haven't done that in weeks!" Eddie snorted a bit, then took to the air again.

Lita shook her head, but she turned a somewhat suspicious look to the land around them as well. Eddie was right, it was rather unnaturally quiet. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but it did make her uneasy. She turned to call back up to Eddie. "That'll be the last one. We need to go ahead and get this stuff back to Bladehenge."

"Whatever you say, boss lady!" he called back down to them.

Ophelia glanced to Lita as she finished cleaning up another speaker. "You got spooked all of a sudden."

"Well...we don't need too many of these. Still gotta save some room for everyone to ride back and all that. Besides, Eddie can't haul down that whole wall by himself."

"Mm," Ophelia grunted noncommittally, handing off the clean amp to another Headbanger...but the man didn't take it, he was staring into the distance...maybe. It was always hard to tell exactly what Headbangers were looking at. "Hey, what's-,"

Abruptly the man turned, lunging at her, and Ophelia cried out as she was caught off guard and flung to the ground by the bizarre attack, but then there was a solid THONK sound from where she had been standing, and when she looked, there was what looked like a long, pronged arrow embedded in the speaker.

"DEMONS!" the Headbanger shouted out as loudly as he could, causing nearly everyone around to swirl and look, including Lita and Ophelia.

The man was right...from a hill near the coast, charging up towards them, came a large cadre of what looked like the old Tainted Coil. Ophelia could easily pick out a few dozen Soul Kissers, several Punishing Parties, a few Battle Nuns, and two of the beasts who's heads were spiked iron balls attached to their bodies by long, thick chains...Skull Rakers, she thought. They were rushing right at the Ironheade group, arrows from the Punishing Parties already flying. She could hear others crying out in surprise, alarm and pain, but just as quickly, she saw Ironheade members charging the demons, the Razorgirls who had grabbed their cannons already taking pot shots at the demons as they moved forward.

"Attack! We're under attack, Ironheade, get to it!" Lita called out to the others, as she grabbed her own halberd from her back and pulled it to a ready position, seeing Ophelia drawing her swords. Within a second, an amp smashing into the head of one of the nuns from above let her know that Eddie had joined the battle as well, in his own unique way.

"Fucking demons? After all this time?" he was asking as he landed beside them, whipping loose his guitar and sending bolts of lightning at the nearest Soul Kissers. "We haven't seen any of the Coil since the war ended!"

"Apparently they were just biding their time!" Lita called back, charging forward. She could sense rather than see Eddie and Ophelia flanking her on either side, and they entered the fray with sweeps of weapons and slashes against the demons. The creatures were fighting with the ferocity they were known for, swinging and slashing violently at the Headbangers and Bouncers that had engaged them in close combat, while the Razorgirls were focusing their attention on the two giant Skull Rakers, trying to avoid the enormous mace whenever it went flying. Lita felt Eddie drop back, but she heard the sound of his guitar playing again, and a wave of light flew across the battlefield, filling her with a sense of increased energy and causing her weapon to begin to glow gold, as did the weapons and dressings of the other warriors. Just a second after, there was another tune, and the sounds of pained screams and bodies hitting the ground. "Bib, shirt, face!" Eddie cried out, a rather abridged version of his usual taunt. Despite living in peace for a year, it seemed no one in Ironheade had lost a step.

Still, this was a dangerous situation. The Thunderhogs weren't around to heal, and they had none of their usual vehicles for backup. Eddie could only cast so many spells before his guitar needed to recharge, and he'd already used two. But she just gritted her teeth and went at one of the nuns as fiercely as she could. Their only option at this point was to fight, to try and repel this impromptu insurgence of demons as quickly as they could.

Lita swung her halberd into the nun's leg with a hard THUNK, causing the creature to shriek and swipe at her violently. Lita pulled her weapon loose and blocked the attack, stumbling back a bit, and tried to sweep back at it. Beside her, she was aware of Ophelia rushing in, and the two women struck at once, each going for a leg, causing the nun to scream in agony as each limb was nearly severed off. The demon staggered a moment, even despite the gold aura of healing that was evident around her, the damage the two women dealt out was enough to fell the beast. At that, they split apart, helping the men with the smaller enemies while the other girls continued to blast shots repeatedly at the Skull Rakers.

Eddie, meanwhile, wasn't exactly slacking off. Though he wasn't using his guitar, he didn't particularly need it, as currently he was hacking his way through a Punishing Party. Three of the feminine creatures had fallen already, and he was turning his attention to the last one, ignoring the Pinboy. The slave had never been a threat, he mostly just sat there while the females did all the fighting, and if it's female masters were slain, the pitiful creature would actually slay itself in grief.

So he had thought nothing of turning his back on the pinned demon to take down the demoness...and when the thing crept up behind him, pulled a pin from it's side, and stabbed it hard into his shoulder, to say he was surprised would be an understatement.

"OW! You fucking bastard!" Eddie cried out, spinning around to bury his axe through the beast's neck, sending it's head rolling, and whirling back to behead the demoness as well. He growled in irritation, reaching back to grip the pin and pull it out. He'd been stuck with quite a few of these pins in his time, so it was immediately obvious that there was something different about this one. It felt oily, as though it had been coated in something, and he could see a yellowish residue on his fingers from where he'd gripped it. Not to mention a strange numb pain that was now radiating from the wound and spreading into his arm, into his wings, and across his back alarmingly rapidly. "Well. This is _just_ great."

"Eddie? You okay?" a blonde Razorgirl called out, running to his side, firing off another shot before reaching out to touch his arm.

"I'll be fine, but I think they just drugged me with something..._real_ poison demon juice," Eddie replied, wincing when he found himself involuntarily shifting back to his full human form. "Kill the other Parties quick just in case they have more of those sorts of pins..." He grunted and staggered a bit, dropping to a knee as he felt the weird ache continue to cross his body. "And stay out of the reach of the slaves...apparently the fuckers've learned how to fight back."

"Maybe I better stay with you," the girl said worriedly, popping off a shot at an encroaching nun.

"No, just beat the demons back and I'll be okay," Eddie said, though his words were starting to slur vaguely. "I got a tooth extracted...once...felt sorta like this...'cept now...whole body full'a Novocaine..." He groaned, putting his axe down and gripping the handle in both hands, using it for support, looking as though he were fighting to stay awake. "Hurry up...kill those...things...quick..."

The Razorgirl was clearly torn, but ultimately moved to do what Eddie said, running forward into battle, taking aim for one of the remaining Punishing Parties. Eddie scanned the battlefield quickly...a lot of the demons were dead, and though there were quite a few members of Ironheade with visible injuries, they were all still fighting valiantly. It looked like a good bet that they were going to win this. "Well...that's good..." he wheezed out, before closing his eyes and slumping silently to the ground, out cold.

Lita was busily stabbing her halberd through another Soul Kisser when one of the Razorgirls ran to her side. "Lita, Eddie says he's okay, but he's down. He says the Punishing Parties are carrying some kind of tainted pins and we have to take them out as fast as possible!"

For just a split second, Lita's heart froze in her chest at being warned that Eddie was down, even if it were preceded by an assurance that he was okay. Not far away, she could see Ophelia react to the announcement as well, but both women knew that the fight had to continue; Eddie's condition wouldn't matter if the demons overran all of them. Instead, Lita called out to everyone. "Take out the Parties, everyone, then worry about the others!"

The army called back to her in the affirmative, nearly all of the attention being shifted to a pair of remaining Parties, battering them quickly. Lita was somewhat impressed to see that a large fraction of the demons were already destroyed, including one of the Skull Rakers and the majority of the peons. The brute force turned on the Parties wiped them out in a matter of moments as well, Lita finishing off the last Pinboy herself. All that was left now was a handful of Soul Kissers, a single Battle Nun, and the last Skull Raker...

...all of which, seemingly without a word exchanged between them, abruptly turned tail and bolted again, back the way they had come, with the Skull Raker bowling over anything that got in it's way, cradling it's spiked head in an awkward position in it's arms. A couple of Bouncers moved as though to try and follow, but were pulled back by their Headbanger comrades.

"Is everyone okay? What was that? Dudes, are you hurt?" Ironheaders started calling to each other, everyone running to check on each other, examine injuries, or just express bafflement at the bizarre attack that had just taken place.

Lita frowned deeply at the retreating backs of the demons. She had never seen demons retreat in her life, not from simple skirmishes, full-out battles like this, or even cases where the foul creatures were outnumbered by a hideous amount. Something about this didn't sit right...she wasn't sure what, but there was definitely a sense of foreboding that came from the situation.

Ophelia wasn't concerned about it at all, apparently, she merely flung her swords into place and grabbed the Razorgirl who had warned them about Eddie, turning to run back to check on her beau. Lita watched her go, but turned her attention to the rest of Ironheade, starting to move among them and survey the damage. So far as she could tell, no one had been killed, which was a minor miracle in and of itself, but there were some pretty serious injuries. Someone would need to be dispatched to the Killmaster, hopefully so that he could come and help them out. "Is anyone in condition to run?" she shouted, looking around.

One of the Headbangers, a gray-haired man in a metal helmet, ran forward. "I can, your majesty."

"Run back to the bus and tell Mangus we need the Killmaster and his men...that the Coil have returned, and we need their help."

The Headbanger nodded in that peculiar way Headbangers did, and turned, taking off running in the general direction of where they had left the bus. It would probably take him a minute or two to get there, and then a fair bit longer for Mangus to get to the mountain and recruit the help, but at least it was on the way. Lita blew out a long breath, putting up her halberd, rubbing her arms and wincing at the soreness she felt from several hits and the general exertion. "Out of practice..." she grumbled to herself, but before she could reproach herself too strenuously, a borderline hysterical scream broke through.

"Lita!" Ophelia was rushing towards her at full speed, an expression of pure horror on her face. "He's gone! Eddie's gone!"

"What do you mean, gone?" Lita asked, feeling that nasty chill in her stomach again.

"He's not in the field! I can't find him anywhere! It's like he's just disappeared!"

There was a hushed gasp from the other members of Ironheade, and Lita took on her queenly role once again. "Anyone who has the strength, spread out and start searching," she ordered. The army didn't need to be told twice, and any of them who were capable of movement took off running in various directions, searching for the missing roadie. Lita looked to Ophelia, biting her lip before speaking as reassuringly as she knew how to the other woman. "He can't be far. We'll find him. He probably just tried to make it back to the bus."

It was clear Ophelia didn't believe this, and Lita didn't either...but for the time being, she hung onto that hope. As much as Eddie tried to downplay his own importance, Lita knew losing him would be a devastating blow to the morale of everyone in the land, and she couldn't bear to think about that. They had to find him...for his and everyone's sakes.


	3. Chapter 3

The very first thing Eddie thought when he woke up was that he had the worst hangover he'd ever had in his life.

Now he'd had some pretty spectacular ones, both in this time and his previous one. Working with the high profile bands he'd worked with gave him access to the depths of chemical experimentation, and though he'd never tried any hard stuff, he'd gotten into a little bit of everything else, and as a result had once in a while come to in conditions that were best described as "shitty."

However, alcohol had always been his intoxicant of choice, and landing in the age of metal had treated that particular indulgence well. Even though he'd been here over a year, it still wasn't unusual for him to be struck by the occasional slap of intense vertigo at just how drastically his life had changed from what it had been...even as awesome as the change was, it was disorienting at the best of times. To this day he would wake up at least once a month and be rather confused about what he was doing sleeping in a stone house under a blanket of fur with the most beautiful woman in the world (in his opinion anyway) next to him, and the queen of the whole country screeching at him and trying to beat down his door. Adding a sensation like that to waking up with a beer headache made for some serious morning dizzies.

This was worse. As soon as Eddie became aware, it was like he had a burning knife poked straight between his eyes. His mouth was dry and had a weird, metallic taste to it, and his body ached as though he were on day three of a five-day flu. He groaned softly, trying to force his eyes to open, even though they felt hot and dry as well. Opening his eyes wasn't so bad, though, since at least the room he was in was fairly dim, but everything was weirdly fuzzy, like a Hextadon had shed all over-

Ah, no, vision was blurry, that was the problem. Eddie would have loved to roll over in his bed and go back to sleep until the worst of this wore off. ...if he were at home in his bed. Which he quickly realized he was not.

After a couple seconds of getting his bearings, Eddie came to realize he was in an incredibly strange position for having just woken up. It was like he was standing up, though his weight wasn't distributed right. There seemed to be nothing under his feet. He opened his eyes again, blinking rapidly until they had adjusted as much as possible to being back open. He glanced around the room he was in, trying to take it in. It was made of stone, the way most places were, but it seemed as though this place was more rubble than anything. There were smashed bits of statues, ripped up cushions and shattered bits of glass and mirror along the floor. With just a second's thought, he recognized the place...it was a room from the ruins of Lionwhyte's Pleasure Dome. He and others from Ironheade had been trying to clean the place up to repurpose it for something else, but there was such a vast mess that it was taking them quite a long time. This room didn't look as though it had even been touched yet. Strangely enough, it also looked as though the floor was about ten feet below him, must've been one hell of a...

Wait. The floor _was_ ten feet below him. Spatial disorientation had nothing to do with it, he was in full human form and yet hanging in the freaking air. Eddie spent a split second being flabbergasted by this before his body finally decided it was time to fill his brain in on another detail, which was that his arms were raised over his head and sore as hell. He looked up and confirmed that gravity hadn't abandoned him, but that his wrists were bound together in leather straps and he was suspended by them from an extended bit of one of the old statues.

"Oh shit. This isn't good." Eddie looked around the room again, tamping down an instinct to panic. He actually saw his axe and Clementine leaning against the opposite wall, but that didn't help him here. He gritted his teeth, looking back up and starting to strain against the bonds, putting as much strength into it as he could to try and break his way free, but all that succeeded in doing was causing more wrenching pain in his arms and shoulders. He squirmed and thrashed a moment, but it was futile, even if he weren't in a bad position to work against it, the leather was too strong and thickly wrapped.

All right, then. If he shifted to his demon form, he could use his wings to get up to the statue where the leather was secured and work it off the end of the extension, then cut his hands free on his axe. He hadn't decided yet whether after that he'd choose the "run away" plan, or the "find who did this and decapitate them" plan, but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

Eddie had needed to practice with his demon form to get to the point where he could control the change. The first few times it had happened, it had been involuntary...it only seemed to happen when a large battle had broken out and he assumed that was the only thing that could bring it out of him. Ophelia had been the one to convince him that he should try to learn how to change at will, and make use of the advantages that came with it. At first, he hadn't been able to do it, no matter how hard he would work during skirmishes against leftover bits and pieces of the Drowning Doom. He tried to get himself angry, figuring on the "Incredible Hulk" method (a method he had to find a new way to explain when mentioning the Incredible Hulk got him nothing but a bunch of blank stares from Ironheade). That made him feel closer, but it still hadn't brought on the change.

Finally, as a last resort, he'd gone to see the Guardian of Metal. The wise old creature knew secrets about nearly everything else, so it made as much sense to ask him as anyone. The Guardian had feigned bafflement for just long enough to make Eddie feel uncomfortable before finally laughing and informing Eddie that he was surprised the roadie hadn't come to see him sooner.

According to the Guardian, Eddie's demonic form didn't need to be forced out somehow...just the opposite, in fact. Humans were creatures of emotion more than demons were, he had said. Sheer emotion couldn't be counted on to unleash a demon, it would take calmness and confidence. Singular focus was necessary, having a goal and putting all your longing into it was the best way to do it. Sure, the Guardian had admitted that pure unadulterated rage _was_ one method to do it, though not foolproof, but the best way was just "singular focus" (the Guardian had repeated that phrase so many times during their talk that Eddie had given serious consideration to knocking him on the head) on any particular emotion or goal, no matter what it was...pure dedication to the task at hand.

Eddie had sort of thought that advice was pure bullshit, a "think happy thoughts" line of crap he hadn't believed when Peter Pan and Tinkerbell had preached it to his child-self either...but with some work, he'd discovered that, shock of shocks, the Guardian of Metal knew what he was talking about. It was almost like meditation, in a way. Find your center or whatever, and focus on the one thing you absolutely needed to happen, and the demon would come out to make it happen for you.

Eddie hadn't had a hard time putting a "singular focus" into his mind...the one thing he could always focus on: the dedication to his new family...Ophelia, Lita, Mangus, Ironheade.

He would never in a million years tell anyone that his demon side ran on what was essentially the power of friendship...he was sure he'd be razzed to the point of incoherence if he ever admitted to that...but he had it figured out, and he could break out his wings and extra bursts of power whenever he needed them. Some times were easier than others...in a relatively calm environment, he could pretty much just blink his eyes and have wings. In a case like this, it was going to take some work.

So now, hanging from the leftover statue of a long-dead despot, Eddie closed his eyes, drawing in his inner clarity again. He started to put the pain in his arms out of his mind, his fear over the situation, the sickness from whatever was in his system...all of it shoved away for one single thing. Get back home. Go back to Ophelia. Back to Bladehenge. Back to the people he lived and died for. Ophelia. Lita. Mangus. Ironheade. He had to get back to them. Couldn't stay here. Had to get back. Had to get back. Had to. Had to. Had to-

"Well, I see you are finally awake, son of Succoria."

"Oh _come on_, man!" Eddie snapped, opening his eyes. "I was trying to concentrate!"

It was a Warfather, one of the freaky gap-jawed demons that had been Doviculus's elite units. He was flanked by what must have been the remnants of the force that had just attacked them at the Screaming Wall...only one nun, one Skull Raker, and a handful of Soul Kissers. They were staying back, though, and the Warfather approached him, the height gained from his suspension enough to put him eye to eye, or whatever the demon had, with it.

"I hope you have found the conditions of your stay relatively comfortable, halfling," the Warfather said, getting right up in Eddie's face, reaching out to put one taloned hand to his temple.

Eddie decided not to even waste the sarcasm. He flung his leg up and kicked the Warfather right in the lower hinge of his jaw, sending the tall beast staggering. He knew it wasn't the wisest course of action, since he was completely at the demons' mercy, but he was at their mercy regardless of whether he fought back or not. Might as well try to dislocate the ugly fucker's face before they killed him. The Warfather moved to come back, and Eddie kicked again, drumming both feet across the ugly bastard's mug. He went for another kick, but this time he got his ankles grabbed by the demon, and the Skull Raker moved up, taking hold of Eddie's legs and holding them to keep him from kicking anymore.

"Surely you do carry the most powerful traits of both your progenitors," the Warfather said, rubbing it's lower jaw, voice actually appreciative. "Your father's human determination and your mother's vicious bloodthirstiness."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure it's not that I'm pissed that you fucking drugged me and strung me up like a pinata." Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Have you invented pinatas in this time yet? I don't wanna be the first one, dudes."

"You have slain two of our emperors, halfling," the Warfather responded, fisting one paw as it spoke. "Once through your birth, and once through your actions. You have bound yourself irrevocably in our history...and we must truss you into it once more..."

Eddie rolled his eyes a little. "Could you just hurry up and kill me? I'm really not in the mood for your double entendres right now."

"Your death is not our desire," the demon responded. It stepped in again, not worried about further attacks now that Eddie was being held down. "You have cost us our emperors, and thrown our entire hierarchy into chaos. We have to feel that you are too important to us to simply throw away through death." The creature reached up, trailing the back of it's fingers along Eddie's cheek and jawline, ignoring the obvious revulsion from their captive. "Far, far too valuable..."

"I'd bite you, but I think you'd enjoy that too much," Eddie growled, trying his best to wriggle away from the touch.

"We have need of you, son of Succoria," the Warfather continued, as it's hand moved from Eddie's jaw, to gripping at his throat, and it splayed the other over his sternum, pressing hard enough against it that Eddie felt suddenly breathless. "Through you, the Coil shall rise again, it shall regain what rightfully belongs to it. As humanity tried to liberate itself with the half-heart of a demon, so shall we replenish ourselves with the half-heart of a human."

"You better-!" Eddie started to threaten the beast again, but there was an odd scent, something like sulpher and burning meat. For just a second, Eddie was sure the bastard was about to burn him alive...but glancing down, his eyes widened when he saw it was the _demon_ burning...it's skin was glowing and bubbling, and he quickly felt the incredible heat himself...except it wasn't just against the demon's hands...he felt as though his veins were alight, like a fire was eating it's way through his insides. He frantically renewed his struggles, trying to get free of either demon's grip, but they had firm hold of him. "Let go! Get off! What are you doing to me?"

"Do not struggle, son of Succoria..." the Warfather said. "Your transformation may be painful, but you will come to love it."

"No I won't!" Eddie shouted, thrashing about as the heat soared...it was like liquid flame was rushing through him. Now it wasn't just his veins, it was everything...his muscles, his bones, his skin, _everything_ felt as though it was being poured over by _acid_. He started to scream, a part of him honestly shocked that flame didn't shoot out of his mouth as he did. At the same time, though, something was fast overlaying the heat...a sense, a presence, a...stark malevolent intruder, as though the purest essence of hatred was eating him from the inside out, trying to hollow him out, with intentions on just wearing his skin around itself, eating him and cauterizing whatever got left behind to support the empty shell that would be left-

All of it was over, just like that. The heat and pain disappeared, the Warfather staggered back away from him with a choking sound, and Eddie found himself hanging once again...gasping, shuddering, sweating...but still whole, and still wanting to murder the hell out of the demons. He would have felt more relieved if he weren't trying so hard not to puke.

The Skull Raker let him go and moved to try and help up the stricken demon, though apparently none of them were pleased.

"Why didn't it work?" he heard the nun screeching indignantly. "You swore to us a new emperor!"

"I don't know," the Warfather was snarling back. "I touched the pure demon inside him, there should have been a response! But there is nothing!" The Warfather turned an angry gaze to Eddie. "The son of Riggnarok overpowers the son of Succoria. The human weakness mars him too thoroughly."

"I could'a told you that," Eddie wheezed out. "Saved us all a lot of trouble..." He stopped, looking up in a bit of puzzlement, then around, turning his head as much as he could to look at the wall behind himself. "I'm gonna guess you guys didn't plan this location out real well before you came here, did you?"

"He is no good to us!" the nun screeched, apparently ignoring him.

"Demons, seriously, did you really think through bringing me _here_ to torture me?"

The nun wouldn't stop on her rampage. "He is the slayer of our empire, the slaughterer of our children, and now you can't even use him to give us a new emperor! The only thing left to do with this abomination is feast on his defiled flesh before our annihilation!"

Eddie looked back down, seeing the demons starting to close in on him. "You know, I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"And why would you say that, son of Riggnarok?" the Warfather hissed.

Eddie simply squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself...and from behind him, there was a rumble, then, with a tremendous screeching howl of noise and a burst of soundwaves, the stone wall exploded inwards with enough force to send the demons flying backwards. Eddie found himself swinging back and forth on the end of the rope, but even with that, he couldn't keep the grin off his face at the sight of a team of Roadies, carrying their amps, standing in the now-gaping wall.

"Because my boys live here, you dumbfuck demons!" he yelled at them.

"Eddie, man, we heard you screaming, are you okay?" one of the Roadies asked, as another ran over, moving to put his amps under Eddie's feet.

"Here, stand up there and get the pressure off your arms, man," the second one said, as Eddie gratefully did so.

"Man, am I ever glad to see you guys," Eddie said, wincing from the ache as he lowered his arms...still bound together, but at least not supporting his entire weight anymore. "Yeah, I'm fine, no thanks to those creeps."

"You just take a break, let us handle this," the first roadie said, as he and four more roadies charged the demons. The screeching beasts lunged upwards, trying to come back at them, but the roadies were practiced at setting off their amps in a sequence, and they knocked the creatures back, practically herding them into a corner and battering them mercilessly against the stone walls.

"How'd you get into this mess?" the Roadie under his feet asked, looking up at him.

"Me and the rest of Ironheade were gathering off the Screaming Wall and got jumped. These bastards popped me with something and I woke up here. I just hope that-,"

"EDDIE!"

He blinked, then turned his head back to the hole, seeing a handful of Headbangers there, who were now shouting to someone else. "Hey, we found him, guys!"

"Oh, were you looking for me?" Eddie asked. "I was just here." He gestured vaguely, showing the leather straps. "You know, hanging out."

After a minute, a few more members of Ironheade came running...and he heard a familiar voice that made him smile regardless.

"One side...one side!" Lita pushed past everyone, amazingly enough with Ophelia right behind her, both of them looking frazzled and worried...but their faces went to pure relief when they saw him. "Eddie!"

"Eddie! You're all right!" Ophelia gasped out, running to the base of the amps, looking up at him.

"I'm good." He glanced over at where the Roadies were still bashing the shit out of the demons. "They might need a little help though."

Ironheade rushed forward to help, as Lita motioned to Ophelia, who nodded, cupping her hands and holding them out. Lita stepped into them, and Ophelia threw her upwards, just high enough for Lita to swing her halberd and cut the leather binding Eddie to the statue. He hopped down from the top of the amps, nodding his thanks to the Roadie that had held him up, even as the man ran forward to join the pummeling, then held his wrists out for Ophelia, who took her sword and cut his arms free...then immediately pushed into them, hugging him as tightly as she could. "We were so worried about you...when we realized you were gone-,"

"Hey, don't worry. I'm all right. Nothing a hot bath and a couple beers can't fix." He looked to Lita, grinning and holding out an arm, inviting her into the hug as well, but the queen of Bladehenge contented herself to merely stepping over and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said, with a small smile and nod.

"What about everyone else?" he asked, shifting Ophelia to keep an arm around her and keep her close.

"Everyone's fine. We had a few wounds, but Mangus is going with Killmaster and some of his men to go take care of them. We can take you to see him too, if you need it," Ophelia was still looking him over worriedly, as though he were somehow hiding grievous wounds from her.

"Nah, I'm gonna be fine. They tried to rough me up a bit but they didn't get the job done."

"What exactly did they do, though?" Lita asked, eyeing the set-up a little curiously.

"That can all be told on the way to Bladehenge. We've still got a stage to repair."

Lita shook her head slightly...obviously not able to believe Eddie was able to think of the stage at a time like this...but she gestured that as soon as the rest of Ironheade was done killing this last dreg of demons, they would be on their way.


	4. Chapter 4

"...and it hurt, don't get me wrong. But then the demons all start freaking out like 'you promised us a new emperor' and 'why didn't it work' and just spazzing the hell out."

Lita nodded, frowning deeply. She, Eddie, and Ophelia were sitting at the front of the bus together, while Eddie told them about what had happened back with the demons. The Deuce was being towed behind the bus...Eddie had wanted to drive back to Bladehenge himself, but Ophelia refused to leave his side and Lita insisted on being briefed immediately on what the demons had tried to do to her royal adviser, and rather than trying to squeeze both women in the car, he'd just arranged to have it brought back and he rode with them on the bus. Right now he was settled in one seat, absentmindedly tuning his guitar, with Ophelia with him, and Lita across from them both.

"So they were trying to make you into their new emperor?" Lita asked, a little confused. "Why would they pick you?"

"Believe me, I was wondering the same thing. I guess they figured that since I'm a direct descendent of one of the emperors, that maybe I...I...shit, I don't even know. They were saying stuff about the humans using a half-demon so they'd use a half-human, blah blah blah." Eddie shook his head. "That Warfather said something about touching my inner demon, which I guess meant they were trying to bring that all up to the surface...though all it did was make me want to take a really, really hot bath." He made a face, shaking his head slightly as he finally set the guitar down next to him.

"But they're all direct descendents of an emperor," Ophelia responded. "They're all...uh...disgustingly related..."

"Like I said, I don't know either, Ophs. They're demons. Maybe it was just revenge. Maybe it's because of their hierarchy...they need one person at the top to do all the breeding." Eddie shuddered slightly and rubbing a hand across his face. "Seriously, such a hot bath."

"But then where did they come from? We haven't seen any more demons since the end of the war, and we've had scouts patrolling all over," Lita said, resting her chin in her hand. They stayed silent a moment, before Lita finally sat back up. "Eddie, I'd feel better if you stayed in Bladehenge for now. They apparently came looking specifically for you, and we don't know if that group was acting on their own or if this is something all the demons have gotten into their heads."

"What, you don't think I can take care of myself?"

"I know you can handle demons...more than the rest of us, even. But they can still outnumber you, sneak up on you...especially with how isolated your house is."

"I can see anything coming from miles away from my house..." Eddie protested. "I built it planning that it could get attacked. I've got a light cannon from the stage mounted on top of it!"

"I just...just would feel better," Lita said. "Just until we can spread the word to everyone else and arrange for more patrols and better defenses everywhere. A day or two tops."

"I think I'd feel safer staying closer to everyone else too, Eddie," Ophelia said, putting a hand on his leg. "At least tonight."

Eddie shook his head slightly, holding up one hand to silence them, a bit resigned. "All right, all right, fine, we'll stay close till the patrols are reorganized. But if I stay up all night partying with the boys, I'd better not get lectured."

"Fine," the women both said at once, before Ophelia leaned back against him. He sat back in his seat, putting an arm around her, rubbing his face a little. Lita sat back as well, crossing her arms and looking out the window. Killmaster and two of his men were driving on either side of the bus...they had seen to healing the worst of the injuries, but were going to tag along to Bladehenge...and better safety...before taking care of anyone who wasn't too seriously hurt. She rubbed her arms again, again silently hating the fact that she had let herself get even slightly out of practice. Sure, she had a lot more responsibilities now, and war hadn't been a part of their lives in quite a while...but she shouldn't have let her guard down so completely.

They would have to remedy that...set back up all the old training dummies and resume using them. They wouldn't be caught off guard like this again.

( )

By that night, things had been taken care of. The stage was fixed, the bassists had taken care of everything, and Killmaster had, in his usual acerbic way, reminded everyone to please try to stop getting their asses kicked when he wasn't around to patch the extra holes, and been on his way. Though all the different societies lived in relative harmony now, Killmaster and his men still greatly preferred their privacy, and tended to keep to themselves at the summit of Tophat Mountain. The other tribes were the same way...the Zaulia and the Fire Barons, as well as the Roadies, all kept to their own territories, but stayed on friendly terms with each other (well, the Zaulia and Fire Barons were about as likely to set each other on fire as wave hello, but being two tribes of warriors, that didn't seem bother any of them).

Still, even with only a fraction of humanity living in Bladehenge, it was incredibly rare for Eddie to find any of the bathing pools empty, and he was taking full advantage of the fact. The large hot tubs, constructed after the end of the war and big enough to handle 20 or so people at a time, could usually be found full of folks, either bathing, partying, or just relaxing. But for once, at least this one was empty, and he enjoyed the chance to get as comfortable as possible in the water.

Bathing...hadn't exactly been a huge priority to most of humanity when he arrived. Aside from Lionwhyte and his favored few, most people were slaves or scavengers who had no time for anything but mere survival. Eddie was a modern man, though, and rather used to the concept of cleanliness. It was the one habit of his that the others in Bladehenge seemed to consider somewhat silly...though as soon as the war was over and he'd rigged up the first tub towards the outer edge of the village, they had become wildly popular with the ladies, so he hadn't gotten made fun of for long over it. Now everyone made frequent use of them, and although Eddie still wasn't quite used to the concept of public baths, since no one else had any different experience to be embarrassed by it, he just rolled with it.

But having some quiet time to himself in Bladehenge was a rare treat, and he laid back in the water, heated from a wood fire at the opposite end to avoid scalding, eyes closed, then took a breath, sliding under for just a second and coming back up. He shook his hair out of his face, then looked around, locating a bottle of shampoo on one side. He had no idea where the Razorgirls kept getting these, he assumed Lionwhyte had kept a stash of it somewhere...or somebody just knew how to make it, though no one had told him if that was the case. Either way, there always seemed to be some floating around, and he wasn't the least bit ashamed to make use of it.

He hadn't been kidding about needing a hot bath. He wanted to be sure to scrub every last speck of demon off. Just getting touched by one of those nasty fuckers was about the same as picking up a garbage can and dumping it all over yourself as far as he was concerned. Fortunately Ophelia had been too distracted fixing up their room for the night to notice him slipping off...she'd been glued to his side all day, and while he understood it was just nerves after the attack, he just wanted a couple seconds to _breathe_. He knew he was going to get chewed out once she inevitably tracked him down, but at least for now it was peaceful.

Eddie tried not to contemplate his own demon side too much. It just was what it was, and he couldn't change it, so there was no reason to get all woe-is-me over it, but that didn't preclude just not thinking about it. He used it when helpful, and was honest about it when asked, but that was all. It actually sort of freaked him out a little at how avid Ophelia was about it...she'd wanted him to learn to use it when he would have been more comfortable just pretending it never existed, she'd been the one to convince him to tell the others rather than risk it breaking out somewhere else and it looking like he had been hiding the secret. Ophelia had...well, she'd definitely developed an appreciation for openness in the last year. It was a good thing, but still...

Eddie dunked himself to rinse away the lather he'd worked up, then sat up, shaking back his hair again. He glanced around to be sure he was still alone, then, with a sigh and a slight wince of concentration, went into his demon mode, folding his wings against his back and ducking under the water, flapping them in and out of it a few times.

He had no idea where his wings went when he wasn't using them...he'd asked Killmaster his opinion, and the healer hadn't been much help. All Killmaster could tell Eddie was that he felt different from anyone else Killmaster had ever had to heal, and all he knew was what was a "normal" level of health for Eddie. His biology was fundamentally different from full-blooded humans and likely they'd never fully understand it. So, Eddie wasn't sure if it was necessary, but he tried to keep his wings clean just in case, even if the method he'd figured out to do it did make him feel like the ugliest bird in the weirdest birdbath in existence.

Finally satisfied, he sat back up, and flared his wings out once to stretch them out before shifting back to human, splashing some water on his face.

"You know Ophelia is tearing the place up looking for you," Mangus's voice came from the side, and Eddie opened one eye to look over at him. Mangus was leaning against the tub, looking slightly amused.

"She knew I was coming here at some point," Eddie answered calmly, wiping his eyes clear of water.

Mangus shrugged slightly, demeanor going a touch more serious. "You scared the shit outta everybody today, man. Can't blame her for being spooked. If the demons had wanted you dead, you'd be dead, and we couldn't'a done nothing."

"Well, that's in the past. We can't change what happened, but we can plan to be more careful in the future and be grateful we were lucky today."

Mangus raised an eyebrow. "I know you're more freaked out than you're putting on, Eddie. You can pretend all you want but I know how you really feel about demons. I'm amazed you aren't already out hunting for some to kill."

"I promised I'd stay in Bladehenge tonight, so I'm staying. Toss me a towel, will ya?"

Mangus turned to pick up a black cloth towel from a pile of them at the side of the tub, throwing it to Eddie. "I'm just saying, you're taking this awful well, considering what they were trying to do to you."

Eddie shook his head, wiping his face dry and draping the towel over the edge, leaning back to get comfortable again. "Well, they couldn't have done anything to me. Maybe my body is half demon, but my mind is all human and it always will be. They can't change that no matter what little tricks they try to play."

Mangus still looked a bit concerned, but he didn't follow up on it. "All right, well, Lita wants to know if you'll be able to help her reorganize the patrols in the morning. She says you have a better head for it anyway."

"Yeah, yeah. You can tell Bloody Mary I'll be there." He contemplated just a second. "You know she'd stab both of us in the ass if she knew that wasn't just the name of her car."

"Well how else am I supposed to talk to you about her? She'd stab us in the ass if she knew we talked about the stuff we talk about. Thank God she doesn't know anything about cars or we'd already both have spare assholes."

Eddie chuckled a bit, waving Mangus off, and the lanky man snickered as well, shaking his head and turning to head off. Eddie watched him go, then got to his feet, moving to climb out of the tub, quickly drying off and getting himself dressed. Just because he was _used_ to public bathing didn't make him fond of it.

Hair still dripping, he put the towel into a different pile of used towels and started out into the center of Bladehenge proper, waving to some of the others who greetted him as he walked. He wanted to be sure there were a lot of people around when Ophelia tracked him down. He wasn't scared of her, of course not, but maybe she wouldn't make as much of a scene if-

"EDWARD RIGGS!"

Scratch that theory.

He turned to see Ophelia beelining towards him, with several Headbangers and Bouncers all but diving out of her path. "Hey, Ophs, I was just on my way back-,"

"You snuck off!" She walked up and stuck a finger right in his face. "You waited until my back was turned and took off! I was talking to you for ten minutes before I realized you weren't there!"

"You knew I was going to the baths tonight," Eddie said with a bit of a lame grin.

"Maybe I wanted to go with you!" she responded, crossing her arms.

"Well...we could go back?"

Ophelia narrowed her eyes, then sighed deeply. "I wish you wouldn't sneak off from me right now. It's been a really rough day and I just wanted you with me, okay?"

"I understand, but trust me, everything is fine. Nothing is gonna happen in Bladehenge. You're worrying too much." He put his hands on her shoulders. "Now we know for sure that demons are still out there, and we'll rearrange to make sure we can see them before they're right on top of us. What happened today isn't gonna happen again. Just relax a little, huh, Ophs?"

Ophelia shook her head, pushing in to hug him tightly. "I just don't want to lose you, Eddie. You're the best thing that ever happened to me...to any of us-,"

"I wouldn't go that far-,"

"I would!" She looked up at him. "Eddie..."

He quickly put a finger to her lips, chuckling somewhat. "Ophs...I know you're bothered, and I understand why. When...if it were me, I...well...you know..." He cleared his throat and started over. "Look...if the demons had gotten after you, if we lost each other again after everything we've been through..." He shook his head. "But...we can't let worry about that sort of thing rule our lives or we'll be too paranoid to go out and do the things that we love...and that keep us safe. Imagine if you'd been too scared to recruit the Roadies and free the girls, you know?"

Ophelia let out a breath...not quite a sigh, but leaned against him. After a moment she spoke again. "You smell like soap."

"Well I did just take a bath."

She reached up, grabbing hold of the stage passes he still always wore around his neck. "Well, you're gonna take another one. With me."

Eddie grinned a bit, letting himself be pulled along. "Yes, ma'am."

( )

Lita sat at the end of her bed, staring at the floor in silence. She could sense rather than see Mangus enter the bedroom behind her. "Eddie said he's on board to help out tomorrow," he said.

"Good. Between the three of us, we should be able to put it together fast."

Mangus sat on the bed behind her, and without a word, reached out to lightly rub her shoulders. "You look tired, babe. You should try to sleep."

"Ohhh, Mangus." Lita tilted her head forward a bit, closing her eyes. "I am tired." She glanced back at him. "How was Eddie?"

"In deep denial. But what do you expect?"

Lita shook her head slightly. "I feel like I put too much pressure on him sometimes. Like I've got the weight of the world on my shoulders, but then he's got _me_ on _his_ shoulders, you know what I mean?"

"Nah. You let him get away with too much in my opinion. After that whole blood fountain debacle-,"

"Now, maybe I pushed that whole thing a little too hard..." Lita said, wincing at the memory. "I could have picked a different time to put my foot down so hard over the delegation issue." She shrugged as much as she could with the massage going on. "You're probably right, though. I just don't feel like I should ask too much of him. Everything he's already done for us...for me, personally..."

"And we're all grateful to him...and he knows that. And if he wanted to sit on his ass and coast on that for the rest of his life, I imagine most people would be inclined to let him. But he _wants_ to keep working to make things better, and he needs you to let him know what has to be done."

"He's just made so much of a habit of putting other people ahead of himself...he can't even focus on himself when he might be in real danger..."

"Hey, hey, hey..." Mangus gripped her shoulders and turned her around, smiling some as he lightly took hold of her chin. "Everything's okay for right now. There's plenty of guards out, everyone knows to keep an eye on him, and Ophelia ain't gonna let him out of her sight. He's fine, and we're fine. Tomorrow we'll start the hard stuff, but for right now, you gotta rest, babe."

Lita nodded slowly, closing her eyes, letting a smile creep onto her face. "You're right...you're right." She opened her eyes to look back at him again. "I don't thank you nearly enough either, Mangus."

"You ain't gotta thank me, babe. We're a team, we work good together."

"We do." Lita leaned forward to give him a quick peck on the lips, chuckling a little. "And we do have a hard day ahead of us tomorrow. Why don't we go ahead and get to bed, then?" She patted his arm, smiling just a bit more, and moved her way past him and up the bed.

"You bet'cha!" Mangus said with his own big grin, getting up and going to the candles lighting the room, blowing each of them out till the room was in total darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

Ophelia came awake the next morning slowly, a little blearily. After she and Eddie had gone to the bathing pools together, they'd met up with a few other citizens and spent a fair bit of the night sitting around a fire, drinking beer and swapping stories, before the two of them finally shuffled back to the room they were staying in for the night, barely taking the time to exchange good night kisses before collapsing in an exhausted pile on the bed. She felt Eddie still curled up against her back, one arm draped over her, but as soon as she shifted, he spoke up.

"Mornin', Ophs," he said softly.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked, reaching down to take the hand resting on her stomach and squeezing it lightly.

"Eh, few minutes, not real long. Just haven't been able to convince myself to get out of bed yet. Stomach feels like crap."

"Yeah, same here." Ophelia moved to sit up, groaning a little at the feel of the cool air against her bare skin as she looked down at him. He was still on his side, looking up at her sleepily. "We really shouldn't have drunk that much."

"Eh. Not the first time, won't be the last." Eddie finally pushed himself up to sit up next to her, rubbing his eyes. "How late is it?"

Ophelia leaned across him to a small window in the wall next to the bed, pulling aside a leather flap, both of them immediately moaning as a spark of bright sunlight came through. She quickly pushed it back over the window. "Late enough that we're gonna be in trouble if we don't get up now."

"Mmmmph." Eddie laid back down and buried his face in the pillow, grabbing her's as well and pulling it over his head. "I told Mangus I'd help Lita with the guard assignments this morning."

Ophelia got to her feet, stretching out, and moving to pick up her clothing, starting to pull her jeans on. "All right, c'mon, get up, then, we need to get going."

Eddie grouched slightly, but finally sat up, wincing and putting a hand to his stomach as he did. "God, I feel like I could just chunk all over the place."

"Well, if you do, try not to get it on your clothes." She picked up his jeans and threw them to him. "Come on, we need to hurry before Lita comes looking for us."

Eddie grumped a bit more, but got up and started getting himself together as well. Ophelia chuckled slightly as she pulled her belt into place and pulled on her shirt. Eddie wasn't usually in a sour mood first thing in the morning, except after a long night, but she knew once he'd had something to eat, he'd perk right up. "Come on, we can take enough time to stop at the fire pit and get some boar for breakfast before we go."

Eddie mumbled and grumbled a bit more, but with a minimal amount of coaxing, Ophelia had him dressed and on his way down to the pit, where a couple of the Razorgirls were cooking some of a pig's meat. Nearby, a large pot was boiling over a fire, and a Headbanger was happily cooking small, carrot-like vegetables in it. "Mornin', guys!" one of the girls said, waving happily.

"Morning, girls!" Ophelia said happily, accepting a carved bowl with servings of the meat and vegetables in it. Eddie managed a smile for them, but didn't say much else...merely following after Ophelia as she picked a nearby log to sit on, then starting to pick at his food. Ophelia dug into her breakfast, rather famished, but after a couple minutes of eating in silence, she glanced over to see Eddie's bowl was mostly untouched, and he was staring into the distance. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Eh, not really..." Eddie said, nevertheless bringing his attention back to the bowl, pulling a few pieces of the meat loose and nibbling at them. "Not for roast pig first thing in the morning anyway. We need to find other birds that lay real eggs around here."

"I think the Sickle Wraiths-,"

"_Other_ birds. Not those things. Yeeuck."

Ophelia snickered a little. "You like roast boar when it's cut thin and fried."

"Well, yeah, that's practically bacon! That's morning food. This is dinnertime food."

"It's all the same meat. You're just a picky eater."

Eddie responded to that with a small belch, then patting himself on the chest, wincing. "I am not. I just have heartburn. And a hangover. Gimme a break."

Ophelia chuckled a bit, finishing off her meal, standing. "Well, if you're not gonna eat, then let's just go find Lita and get this planning done so we can get back home."

Eddie shrugged, taking one last reluctant bite before standing, taking the bowls back to the Razorgirls and thanking them for the food, then he and Ophelia started making their way through the village. Eddie took hold of Ophelia's hand as they walked, both just for the sake of holding her hand, and as a way to keep himself on track as he looked around while they walked...otherwise he tended to walk into walls and trip over tents.

One thing that definitely made him smile was seeing several small families that had formed in the last year. A few couples had gotten together and already had children...only infants yet, but there were several. He saw a Bouncer sitting on the ground with a tiny baby boy in his lap, the infant waving little fists at his father. Another Bouncer was walking with his heavily pregnant girlfriend, taking almost exaggerated care to help her along. Eddie grinned particularly wide at the sight of one particular pair...a dark-haired Headbanger with a thin mustache and a masculine symbol necklace, and a giggling blonde Razorgirl at his side. Both of them were wearing small leather backpacks rigged up to allow them to carry their babbling twin daughters. Those were the oldest children in Bladehenge at the moment...having been born only five months after the end of the war...eight months after the couple had met, which made Eddie know exactly how good a job of wingmanning he had done after all. Ophelia had been very worried to realize one of her Razorgirls had been fighting in a war while pregnant, especially when the girls had been born earlier than expected. But she, backed up by a bassist, had delivered the healthy newborns herself, and the girls were thriving.

Just like Bladehenge. A lot had changed around what had once been nothing more than a scrubby military base. Small stone and wood cottages dotted the landscape, with a few tents here and there. A section had been carefully fenced off, and two partitions held Raptor Elk and Razorfire boars, kept for easy food. A garden...not a great one, but pretty damn good for a first attempt, was also growing near the top of the area, and water holes had been dug close by to keep long supply trips to a minimum. In the very center was a large statue...a memorial to their fallen king, Lars, placed there after the end of the war and tended to carefully ever since.

Hardly a bustling metropolis, but overall, yes, Eddie could tell that Bladehenge, and it's inhabitants, were thriving just like those baby girls. Considering how things had been when he arrived, Eddie could never quite help a swell of pride knowing he'd had any part in making it this way. He kept it to himself, of course...but he still felt it.

His mood was immediately ruined by another belch, and he winced, tapping himself on the chest again. "God, my stomach's a mess. I wish there were antacids in this time."

"What's an antacid?" Ophelia asked, glancing up at him.

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'm just gettin' old."

Ophelia snorted, and Eddie chuckled a bit himself, stepping forward and pulling aside the curtain that led inside of Lita's "war tent" as Eddie had come to think of it. Lita had loosened up on some things, but he hadn't been able to convince her that they could talk strategy and army business in the comfort of one's home, she insisted on having an area specifically dedicated to it. He'd just let that one go...no reason to needlessly agitate her over something that really didn't matter that much.

Lita and Mangus were already inside, looking over a map spread out on a long table, but they looked up when Eddie and Ophelia entered. "Good, you made it," Lita said, somewhat neutrally nodding to them.

"Hey, I said I'd be here, and I'm here," Eddie said, coming over to stand at a corner of the table, looking down at the map of the continent. "You guys got any notions yet?"

"Well, we can't really finalize anything until we hear back from the Baron and Rima, but we sent scouts this morning to fill them both in on what's going on and get their ideas," Lita replied, tapping her halberd against the ground slightly. "Killmaster told me last night to just let him know when and where we'd need his men and he'd have them there, so that's covered."

"And the Roadies will be there whenever we need them to be, so I can go talk to them myself," Eddie added, nodding somewhat. "So we can plan out everything but the Zaulia and the Fire Barons."

"I feel pretty confident that we can make assumptions that they'll want in on the patrols though," Lita responded. "Anything that gives them chances to go into battle."

"The only problem is, we don't know what direction the demons really came from, so we can't pick a choke point to try and block off any more big armies," Ophelia said, leaning against the table and studying the map.

"There's places we can establish as choke points, though," Eddie said, pointing out spots. "This bridge in the jungle, and the paths in and out of the Pleasure Dome remains are a couple. Then down here from the area north of the Temple of Ormagoden too, in case they're back up to shit out there."

Lita nodded her agreement. "There's places on the paths though the mountains, too. Anywhere that the cliffs are so steep on both sides, we can hold ground easily."

"There's a good one right down the road from our house," Ophelia said with a nod, glancing to Lita with something of a knowing look. "That'll definitely be a good place for a patrol."

Lita caught the intent and nodded as well. "I know the spot you mean, and you're right, that would be a good place."

If Eddie was aware of the slight plotting going on, he chose not to comment on it, instead just going over the map again. "Unfortunately, there's too much open land around here for us to really have any way of effectively covering Bladehenge. We might just have to build perimeters and post people at the warning lights again to try and cover that."

"That worked before, I think it'd work again," Mangus said, nodding. "It's just a question of who do we put where and for how long?"

"How many people do we have able to go out?"

"Basically anyone who isn't taking care of children," Ophelia said. "So nearly everyone."

Lita nodded again, looking up...and she startled immediately. Eddie had his elbows on the table, resting his chin in his hands and staring thoughtfully at the map, the wheels obviously turning in his head as he was arranging and rearranging different groups of soldiers to go to each particular point.

So intent in his thoughts, in fact, that he seemed utterly unaware of the fact that a thin trail of blood was slowly leaking from his nose. "Um...Eddie?"

"Hunh...what?" Eddie tore himself from his thoughts and looked up at her. Mangus and Ophelia had looked to him as well, and they both immediately had the same vaguely confused expressions as Lita. "What, what's everybody looking at?"

"Dude, you okay?" Mangus asked, reaching up to point to his own nose.

Eddie frowned at him, then put a hand to his nose, blinking at the feel of liquid, glancing at it on his fingertips and making a face. "Ah, shit." He immediately pinched his nose and tilted his head forward, making a face and stepping away from the table. "I don't suppose anyone just happens to have a tissue."

"What'd you do?" Lita asked, putting her halberd on her back and moving around to get a closer look. "Did you walk into something on the way here?"

"No, no, it's fine," Eddie said, looking at his hand, then pinching his nose again, accepting a torn cloth from Mangus as it was offered and dabbing at the blood. "I'm so used to being up in the mountains, it's probably just the lower elevation or something."

Ophelia wasn't convinced, and she reached out to touch his arm. "Maybe we better go see Killmaster."

"What, for a nosebleed? It's fine." Eddie glanced at the cloth, then touched his fingers to his nose again. "Hell, looks like it's already stopped. Like I said, it was probably just some little thing from the air or something, it's no big deal. I just don't want to get any on the map." He turned back to the table, changing the subject. "So I'm thinking we need distance shooters in every patrol...we'll need to get the Headsplitters back online because we don't want to spread the Razorgirls out too thin."

Ophelia was still staring at him. "Eddie, are you sure-?"

"Hey, come on, we need to decide about these patrols, Ophs," Eddie said, glancing back up at her, offering a reassuring grin.

She glanced at Lita, who shrugged, and with a sigh, Ophelia rejoined Eddie at the table, looking at the map. The four of them spent a little while looking over the area, discussing further different areas and what warriors would fit best there, and plugging any holes that might be left. Within about half an hour, they had things pretty well figured out, save for needing to hear back from Rima and the Baron.

"Well, that's as good as it's gonna get for now," Lita said, putting a finishing mark on part of the map. "But so far as I can tell, that keeps everyone covered and gives us a way to get quick warnings around if there's any more demon sightings. And now everyone knows to look out for the damn things."

Mangus straightened, crossing his arms. "I can take the bus around and start dropping people off as soon as we need to. We can at least get our guys out there and let the others catch up when they're ready."

Eddie nodded as well. "Ophs and I can take turns doing meal deliveries too. That way we can check in with everybody too, keep up with anything they see."

"What about the Zaulia and Fire Barons?" Ophelia asked.

"Again, I think it's pretty safe to assume they'll want in on anything that has a potential for battle," Lita said with the barest smile. "Rima won't be happy about not getting to be on the front lines, though."

"I wouldn't put it past her to stay out there until she's big and heavy though," Ophelia chuckled. "She'd argue that so long as she's on Baby, she doesn't have to worry about walking or getting around, and the cat'll do most of the work for her."

"Well, surely Kage will convince her to at least stay towards the back of the pack," Mangus said.

Lita shook her head ruefully, then turned back to Eddie and Ophelia. "I'm guessing you guys are going to be headed back to your house tonight?"

"Hopefully so, as much as I love to visit, I'd feel better being further into the mountains. That seems like the most likely area an attack could come from to me," Eddie said. "That's the last place we saw demons before this last batch, anyway?"

"From the Sea of Black Tears, you mean?" Lita asked.

Ophelia narrowed her eyes, almost instinctively, but Eddie spoke up quickly before anything more could be said. "Well, that's where Doviculus was hanging out last, so yeah, that's what I mean. Since no one's been back to check since, we don't know what could be going on in there."

"And no one will be risking their lives going back to check, either," Lita said flatly, looking back at the table. "We've had enough trouble from that Sea for a lifetime."

"Lita-," Ophelia started to say.

"I just said from the Sea, Ophelia, that's all. Don't jump down my throat for that."

Eddie and Mangus traded another look, shaking their heads. As civil as the women could be with each other most of the time, the Sea of Black Tears was still a sore point between them that the men doubted would ever truly go away. Even now Ophelia looked ready to press the fight, but Mangus stepped in to interrupt again. "So should I start getting together the first bus load?"

Lita considered a moment, then shook her head. "No. We'll tell the guys to get their Headsplitters functional so at least one of those can escort the bus. You'd be a sitting duck otherwise."

"I could go with Mangus at least part of the way," Eddie said. He started to step around to the side of the table, but stopped short, an odd look on his face as he tapped his chest again.

"Still heartburn?" Ophelia asked, coming around to put a hand on his arm.

"Yeah, I think so. Guts are a little cramped up, is all."

Lita frowned. "Eddie, maybe you do need to go see Killmaster."

"For what? An upset stomach after drinking half the night? He'd throw us off the top of the mountain and then spit on us for wasting his time."

"And the bloody nose?"

"So I had a bloody nose! Look, I know you girls are freaked out because of yesterday, but I'm fine. It's nothing abnormal, it's just a little-," He stopped, eyes widening, and abruptly spun away from the table, dropping to his hands and knees, and retched violently. Before anyone else could react, he was throwing up...and the other three gasped when it looked to be nothing but pure blood splattering to the ground.

"Oh God, Eddie!" Ophelia moved closer, crouching next to him and putting her hands on his shoulders.

Eddie was panting for breath, mouth and chin stained red, looking in wide-eyed shock at the dark puddle below him. He hesitantly reached up to wipe his mouth on the back of his hand, staring at the crimson stain across his skin. No one said anything for a few seconds, stunned into silence. Finally, however, Eddie spoke up, voice uncharacteristically soft.

"Okay. Let's go see Killmaster."


	6. Chapter 6

It was a new sensation for Eddie to be riding in the passenger seat of the Deuce while Ophelia drove, and he had a feeling that outside of situations like this, he wouldn't be doing it any more. She was driving like a woman possessed, paying no attention to any small animals that happened to be in the way, more than once sending a shower of bits flying up from under the tires. Eddie himself had stopped driving that way after finally getting tired of picking urchin spines out of the car body, but at the moment, Ophelia was single-mindedly intense on getting to the top of Killmaster's mountain.

"Ophs, it's not gonna be some tragedy if we don't get there in less than 30 minutes. I'm not a pizza."

"First, I don't know what that is, and second, you just threw up _blood_, Eddie, that's not healthy, human, demon, or anything else."

Eddie winced at another spray of parts as she plowed over another urchin. "Could you at least go around the speed bumps? I'm going to be pulling these things out of the grill all day."

Ophelia growled something at him that he was sort of glad he didn't actually hear, but then she spoke relatively normally. "How's your stomach feeling?"

Eddie sighed a bit. After puking blood, and the way she had hustled his ass out of Bladehenge, to the car, and took off, he had a feeling she might reach over and slap him if he tried to minimize anything. "It's hurting. Not awful, but definitely uncomfortable." He grunted, grabbing at the seat as she rocketed over a hill in the road hard enough to hang several seconds of air. "Though it would feel better if you'd slow down!"

"We're almost there, quit complaining!"

"You left Mangus and Lita in the dust already!"

"They know the way!"

She squealed the tires as she turned off the road and onto the small path leading up the side of Tophat Mountain, not giving up any speed to the sudden hairpin turns in the middle of tall rock walls. Eddie had to fight the urge to squeeze his eyes shut...he knew he drove this fast himself, but it was different when he wasn't the one controlling the vehicle. Instead he just whitened his knuckles on the seat below him and kept his mouth closed, not wanting to distract Ophelia as she rocketed through the narrow pathway.

He guessed, though, that the sound of the car's rushing announced their presence enough by itself, because as they rounded the last turn and approached the cave that the bassists tended to stay in, Eddie could see Killmaster was already standing at the mouth of it, sunglasses in place, a cigarette in the corner of his mouth and holding one of his pet metal spiders, stroking it idly as he watched them.

"Please don't hit him," Eddie said, glancing to Ophelia.

She didn't dignify him with a response, spinning the wheel to bring the car screaming to a halt sideways, stopping about a foot shy of the Killmaster...who, for his part, didn't even take so much as a step back, just watching them in his usual casual silence. Eddie hopped gingerly out of the car, wincing somewhat at another roil of pain in his stomach.

"Funny enough, I feel like we've seen each other recently," Killmaster deadpanned, letting the spider he was holding crawl up his arm to sit on his shoulder.

"Something's wrong with Eddie, he's throwing up blood, among other things," Ophelia said, coming over to grip Eddie's arm, as though to stop him from running off.

"He was fine last night. What'd you do to him in the meantime?"

Eddie winced a bit, putting his hand to his stomach again. "Can we talk about this in a minute? This is actually starting to hurt really bad."

Killmaster didn't say anything, just turning and heading into the cave, with Eddie and Ophelia following behind him. The healing bed was set up in it's usual spot in the center of the cave, connected to a series of strings and webs from the spiders that crawled all over the place. There were several couches around, on which normally other bassists would be lounging, but today the room was empty save for Killmaster himself. "Everyone else is out back getting their cycles rigged up for combat again," the man said, as though reading the minds of his two guests. "The Baron sent a couple of his men over few days back to help us make our trikes a little more...defensible. Almost like he knew there was trouble brewin'."

"Not a bad idea," Eddie said, hesitating by the bed. He didn't like this area at the best of times, what with the enormous spiders crawling around, or the fact that this was, in this time, effectively the doctor's office. He'd brought others by several times: wounded Headbangers who stuck their faces to the wrong part of an urchin, or women in labor, or things of that nature...but he'd never come for himself, and he didn't like it, or want to be here.

Killmaster didn't have any patience for that, though. "Get your ass up there before I put my boot in it."

"Pacifist, my ass," Eddie muttered, but he moved to climb into the bed, rather self-consciously, keeping his gaze averted from Ophelia and Killmaster alike as he sat gingerly in the middle of it, groaning a bit when the pain in his stomach reminded him that he was there for a reason.

Killmaster was standing at the table at the front of the room, across which were stretched thick bass strings, connected to the variety of webs. He traced his fingers along them momentarily, as though getting a feel for them, then began to easily strum out the usual tune that came with his healing, bobbing his head slightly along with it as though to keep time for himself. As he played, the spider that had been resting on his shoulder crawled down his arm and across the strings, up into a web nearby, but this didn't even phase the man as he played.

Ophelia watched as the usual gold sparks that accompanied Killmaster's magic started to rise up around Eddie, twinkling into the air before sparking out several inches above, and she smiled faintly, a sense of relief coming along with them. She knew from firsthand experience just how nice those sparks could feel, but Eddie still looked like he was perched on a rickety ledge above a pit full of starving Tollusks. She had no idea why he was so uncomfortable with needing the healer, but it was actually pretty amusing to see him off-balance like this...at least now that he was going to be okay.

Behind her, she heard the sound of another car approaching, and turned to see the deep red vehicle coming up alongside the Deuce. Mangus and Lita got out of the doors on either side, Mangus looking rather stressed out and Lita as though she'd just bitten into something sour.

"You drive like a maniac," was all Mangus said, as they moved to stand with Ophelia.

"You would, too," Ophelia said, shrugging her shoulders a bit, as the Killmaster's playing came to a stop, and he glanced up at all of them.

"Okay, you're free to go," the healer said to Eddie, who all but scrambled to get off the bed and on his feet.

"How are you feeling?" Lita asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Much better, but that's to be expected," Eddie said, smiling a bit sheepishly as Killmaster walked over to join them.

"Your insides were torn to ribbons," he said to the roadie, somehow managing to convey a stern look even with the large mirrored sunglasses on his face. "You're lucky you aren't already dead. If you were hurtin' last night, you should've said something."

Eddie shook his head, holding his hands up in a somewhat defensive position. "I wasn't hurting last night. It started this morning and got worse as it went on. But...it didn't feel that bad, like anything was hurt..."

"Well, you were hurt, and bad. Thing is Eddie, even if you go through a scrape and you feel fine, that don't mean you are fine. Plenty'a folks in the heat of battle walk away not knowin' half their bones are broke, but it kicks in later. You should have let me take a look at you last night and it wouldn't'a come to this."

Eddie turned a somewhat hapless face to Ophelia, but she was giving him just as severe a look as the Killmaster. He didn't even try to look at Lita or Mangus. He winced, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck and staring at the ground, mumbling something that sounded like an apology.

Killmaster glared him down a second more, then turned his attention back to Lita. "How 'bout the rest of you?"

"We're fine. We just wanted to come check on Eddie," she said. "As long as we're here, are you and your men ready to get started with patrols?"

"Give us 'bout an hour to finish with our cycles and we'll be good to go. Like I just told them, couple'a the Baron's men are working on them with us."

"Well, that's handy. I can talk to them about their thoughts on joining our sentries." Lita nodded somewhat.

Killmaster shrugged a bit, taking a long puff on his cigarette. "So...what th'hell would bring the Coil back out after all this time? We haven't seen those bastards in a year, and I doubt it was just to fuck with him." He tilted his head towards Eddie.

"Whatever it is, they seemed almost...desperate," Ophelia said. "The attack was practically a suicide run on their part. They wanted Eddie, but...they weren't operating the way they usually do. Something's off about them, they weren't...they weren't behaving the way demons behave."

"And we still don't really know yet if this was an isolated incident, or if we'll see more demons popping up in the future," Eddie said, frowning a bit. "That group was being led by a Warfather, and those were high in the hierarchy, but the Coil have higher. It makes me worry someone else might be doing this."

Lita nodded. "Especially considering demons almost never act without the say-so of a master. I wonder if there's a demon that's jumped into Doviculus's place."

Killmaster shook his head, taking another long drag from his cigarette. "I wouldn't doubt it. He was waitin' his time to take the throne himself after Succoria disappeared, I'd be willin' to bet there'd be another one salivatin' to take his place."

"But why wait so long to act? Aside from leftover Doom, we've had total peace ever since..."

"Got me, doll," Killmaster said, tossing his finished smoke to the ground and grinding it out under his heel. "They're demons, they don't behave in any way that we could understand. 'Sides, even knowing there was an active rebellion, took Doviculus himself a few months to get around to chasin' us down, so obviously demons don't move in a big hurry."

Ophelia shook her head. "That was different. He used the...used the Sea to try and take out humanity...he was working against us, just not directly. So even at that, this doesn't make much sense."

"Whatever way you cut it," Mangus spoke up, "-something weird is going on."

Eddie had been standing thoughtfully alongside the others, one hand on his chin, looking as perfectly normal as ever. He closed his eyes as though considering something...and then he slumped down, collapsing to the floor with a loud thud. The others were jarred out of their conversation, but for a second, merely stared in confusion at the abruptness of this change, before Ophelia gasped and crouched next to the roadie, grabbing his arm and shaking him. "Eddie? Eddie!"

"What the frickin..." Killmaster paused, then simply pushed Ophelia aside. "Mangus, help me put him back up here." Mangus moved quickly, both of them getting their arms under Eddie and hauling him up, more or less tossing him back onto the healing bed, then Killmaster hurried back to his strings, running his fingertips along them again, scowling at the sensations they gave him. "This...this isn't right...I just..." He shook his head, then began to play again, bringing up the sparkles around the unconscious Eddie again. After a few seconds, the sparks faded, and he looked up.

Eddie, for his part, groaned slightly, reaching one hand up to his temple, eyes flickering back open as he came back to awareness, glancing around in confusion before sitting up, staring at the others. "What the hell just happened?"

"You just...fainted..." Lita said, glancing between him and Killmaster, who was still dragging his fingers back and forth on the strings.

"Fainted?" Eddie scoffed a bit, moving to scoot off the bed. "People don't really faint, that's just-,"

"You fainted, and don't you dare move down from there," Killmaster said gruffly. "I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on with you."

"Well, you just healed me, so-,"

"I did. Which is why I'd really like to figure out how you just had a goddamn seizure when you should be in perfect fucking health." His scanning continued, brow furrowed in concentration as he felt the vibrations and sensations that came to him through his strings. The others weren't sure how the bassists did it, but somehow they weren't just able to heal, but even to diagnose through feeling their strings, and at the moment Killmaster was working hard to try and get a feel for Eddie.

Ophelia moved closer, to stand next to the bed, watching in concern. "Maybe it was just some aftereffect of the..." She trailed her voice off when Eddie suddenly let out another grunt of pain, grabbing at his stomach and gasping.

"Oh...fuck, that pain is back..." he wheezed out.

Killmaster frowned at this, then began to play again...and the sparks came up again. That was definitely worrying, as those gold sparks didn't appear unless something was being healed. Ophelia looked at them, then turned to look back at Killmaster, obviously worried.

"Is there something wrong with your equipment?" she asked hesitantly.

"Not that I can tell, no. But there's definitely something wrong with him," Killmaster replied, pointing to Eddie, one hand still tracing the strings. "I've cured him totally three times, but I keep finding new injuries every time." He shook his head. "It's like something's kicking his ass that we can't see."

"But now I feel fine!" Eddie protested, turning on the bed to stare at him.

Killmaster shook his head. "You do right now, but if I let this alone for too long, you're going to be in pain again, in a major hurry. Your insides are ripping themselves apart...and it's happening faster each time." As though to make the point, he started playing again, and Eddie was again surrounded by the gold sparkles.

"What...what does that mean?" Mangus asked worriedly.

"It means he'd better sit his ass right there and let me keep him intact until I can figure out what the hell is going on." Killmaster shook his head, continuing to play. "It's coming as fast as I can fix it. I can keep his body stable, but that's it."

"But...I can't just sit here!" Eddie said incredulously. "Those demons, and the patrols, and-,"

"Feel free to get up and go, then, but you'll be writhin' on the ground before you get off this mountain, and then they'll just have to haul your ass right back. Try it and see if you don't believe me."

"But...but what could cause that?"

Lita bit her lip. "The demons...Eddie, you told us they did something to you yesterday when you were captured...this must be it. Whatever's happening must be their work."

"But they said what they were trying to do didn't work! They were ready to just fry me up and eat me because they said whatever it was failed!"

"Well something's going on that ain't normal, Eddie," Mangus said. "And that's about the only thing that makes sense."

"But how can we find out what they did...or if there's any way to fix it?" Ophelia asked, looking around at the others in concern.

"For now, I can keep it at bay," Killmaster responded, not looking up from his strings. "So long as I keep playing, his system's stayin' balanced out...and I can keep this going as long as I have to. But he's gonna have to stay where I can take care of him."

Lita chewed her lip a moment. "Is there anyone else we could ask...who would know more about the demons?"

"What about that weird dude with the car, Eddie?" Mangus asked.

"Fletus?" Eddie shook his head. "We could, but I wouldn't know where to find him. Last place I saw him was somewhere around the Doom lands, but I don't know where he lives...and he's not in with the Coil anyway. He's kind of a prick, but he's not evil like them...he might not know anything." He considered, then shook his head. "The only person we could ask would be the Guardian of Metal. There's a Forge just down the road from here, we've passed it before, Ophs. We can go in there."

"Well 'we' can't go in anywhere, boy," Killmaster responded. "You are gonna sit your ass there. We just finished havin' this discussion."

"But I'm the only one who's ever been down in the Motor Forge!"

"Tough luck. You wouldn't make it to the road, let alone down it. "

Eddie sighed slightly, shaking his head a little, then looked to the other three. "Well...I guess you guys are gonna have to go."

Ophelia nodded quickly. "I'll go. All you have to do is drive the car up to it, right?"

"Yeah...it's a bit of a ride down into the Forge though. You're gonna need to really be on your game to get down in there without wrecking anything. Just drive up to the door, then take it slow and easy going down, and keep your foot on the brakes because the road down into there ends in a cliff and you do not want to go off that cliff."

Ophelia nodded again, wincing a little. "And...and how do I get hold of the...the Guardian of Metal?"

"He'll...just kinda pop up outta the lava..." Eddie stared at them as they all looked at him as though he were crazy. "Look, I don't know how he does it, he just fucking pops up out of the lava and starts ranting shit at you, ask him how if you want to know...but go with it, and then ask him about this, see what he says."

"Okay...I'll be back as quick as I can." Ophelia came closer, leaning up to kiss him, lingering a moment before stepping back, turning to start for the Deuce.

Lita considered, then turned, starting after her. "I'm coming with you."

Ophelia glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "What for?"

"A few reasons, not least of which being that I want to meet this Guardian of Metal myself. Besides, if it's dangerous, it'd be safer for two of us to be there to fight."

Ophelia looked as though she wanted to argue, but glanced back at Eddie, and apparently decided not to waste the time. "Fine. Hurry up, then." She turned and headed for the car again.

"Mangus, stay with Eddie, okay?" Lita said, putting a hand on the man's arm as she passed him.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, with a bit of a salute. "You can count on me."

"I know I can." She smiled, then looked back to Eddie, who offered her a reassuring smile and a wave.

"Don't worry, guys, I'm in good hands. You two just be careful out there, okay?"

She nodded, then turned, running over, bracing herself on her halberd as she leapt into the passenger seat of the Deuce, which Ophelia was just starting. Ophelia wheeled the car backwards to get it rightly aligned with the road, stopping just long enough to take one more look at the three men still in the cave, then fixed her gaze on the road, peeling out hard enough to kick up gravel and dust as she went speeding back down the pathway.


	7. Chapter 7

Ophelia stared at the steel door at the front of the large metal building as it slowly cranked open at the car's approach. Whatever was inside glowed a yellowish orange, and steam or smoke or some sort of fog billowed out. She slowed to a stop, taking a deep breath, then looking at Lita in the seat next to her. The Queen of Bladehenge was staring apprehensively at the opening as well, and after a second, looked to Ophelia.

"You nervous?"

"A little, yeah," Ophelia replied honestly. "Believe it or not, I'm kinda glad you're here. I've never even been down there with Eddie...I sure didn't want to go in there alone."

"You would have," Lita said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah...but I wouldn't have wanted to." Ophelia took in, then slowly let out a deep breath. "All right...Eddie's waiting for us. Let's do this."

Lita nodded, leaning back and taking hold of the frame of the car beside her, as Ophelia moved the car forward cautiously, just as Eddie had warned, and entered the Metal Forge.

The inside seemed to be a long, twisting stone cave, with spikes and heavy rocks along the walls and ceilings, and strange, glowing hieroglyphics along the walls. Ophelia felt an almost immediate sense of claustrophobia in this place...the rock walls themselves seemed to glow with an eerie red light, and it seemed as though any speed at all could prove fatal, as around every corner waited a new obstacle that seemed designed to smash any vehicles that came through. "How does Eddie come down here so often?" she muttered, driving forward into the downward-sloping tunnel.

"I really don't know..." Lita murmured, sounding rather freaked out. "These...cave formations almost look like...anvils..."

Ophelia gulped slightly as she had to work up a little speed to get by some of those exact formations. "Oh God, I've never driven through anything like this...the freaking bog is easier to navigate..."

"Just remember we're down here for Eddie..."

Ophelia tightened her grip on the steering wheel at that, and pressed the accelerator down a bit harder, moving more quickly through the cave. Lita hung on, but kept looking around at everything as they went, absolutely baffled at this place. The bizarre symbols on the walls were like nothing she'd ever seen, but they seemed to be meaningful...but whatever that meaning was, it was lost on her. She turned her gaze forward again, watching-

"Holy shit!"

Ophelia slammed on the brakes when the cave abruptly opened up, into a spectacularly enormous chamber. Both women stared...it was like driving into the mouth of Hell. Surrounding them were jagged rocks and more of the strangely anvil-shaped outcroppings, jutting up from what looked like an ocean of lava. Strange giant chains were hanging all around them, along with that same bizarre fog, and everything glowed dully from the molten rock below. And far off in the distance, moving about, were what looked like mind-numbingly giant humans, actually wading through the lava without a bit of trouble, wielding huge hammers and working silently at striking something against the anvil rocks. The creatures were so giant that the women couldn't even see their heads, as they were jutted up into the ceiling.

"What...are...those...?" Ophelia gasped out, eyes wider than anyone would have thought possible.

"I...I don't know..." Lita said, staring at them as well. "Eddie never mentioned those."

"Do...do you think one of those things is the Guardian of Metal?"

Lita shook her head slowly, more from shock than from disagreement. "I, uh, I kind of hope not."

Ophelia looked downwards at the road, seeing it narrowed out, with no guardrails on either side, and long, long drops down off either side. "Oh my God. Eddie wasn't kidding about not wanting to drive off that cliff."

"Are you gonna be able to drive on that?" Lita asked incredulously, noticing the thin road as well.

"Um. I guess we're gonna find out."

"Oh damn." Lita clutched at the side of the Deuce, and Ophelia took in a deep breath before starting forward again, heading down the path. It seemed to head steadily downwards, though it remained frighteningly high above the steaming lava below. Ophelia kept a tight hold on the wheel and kept her eyes on either side, but found that despite how narrow the road had looked from above, it was still about as wide as the highways above...it just seemed smaller because of the lack of sides.

"This isn't as bad as I expected it to be," she said.

"Road ends up there," Lita said, pointing forward, and Ophelia looked, and tapped the brakes carefully, bringing the car to a stop several feet away from the edge.

"I...I guess this is where we're supposed to go." She turned off the engine, and she and Lita jumped out of the car, looking around. The giant creatures were still far off in the distance, and didn't seem to be paying any attention to them. "So...he said the Guardian of Metal would just sort of...pop up."

Lita kept hold of her halberd, looking around. "So then...where-?"

A loud, manic laugh began to echo through the air around them, causing both girls to look around, gripping tightly at their weapons. The sound seemed to be coming from everywhere around them at once, above and below and all over the chamber. Even as they were looking for it, though, it trailed off...and with a strange plopping sound, a segment of lava seemed to arc upwards, splashing to the end of the road in front of them, and quickly it solidified into a tall, vaguely human-like rock shape. The women had just enough time to trade a look when, with a surprisingly loud explosion, the rock exploded off, shattering harmlessly to the sides, leaving a figure in a long cloak...black, though as with everything else, tinted oddly from the glow of the lava, with a hood pulled up. After only an instant, a voice spoke with a lilting accent that was similar to Killmaster's, though a bit more...affected.

"Well now this is certainly interesting."

The figure reached up with hands practically encrusted from rings and jewelry, and flipped it's hood back, revealing...a man. A seemingly ordinary man, taller even than Mangus, on a level nearly with the Bouncers, though thinner, with long, dark hair and wearing a dark robe and pink mirrored glasses that completely obscured his eyes.

"After weeks of no one comin' to visit, I finally get some guests, and it's not that screaming twit with the axe. But you did bring down the car-what the hell did you do to it?" The man swept past both of them, leaning down to examine the urchin spines and other assorted mess that had resulted from Ophelia's haphazard driving. "I thought I had finally convinced that boy to quit runnin' over everything with this poor precious vehicle!"

"Uh..." Lita and Ophelia looked at each other, then back at him as he continued to fret over the car. "Are...are you...are you the Guardian of Metal?" Lita finally asked.

"Who, me? Oh, yes, of course." He straightened, a faint smile coming to his face as he sort of bowed to them. "Do forgive my manners, it's been eons since I've had such lovely guests, not to mention royalty. Pleasure to finally meet you, Queen of Bladehenge."

"You...know who I am?"

"Well, of course I do! I know what goes on upstairs. You're Lita, the Queen of Bladehenge." He pointed to Ophelia as he wandered past them, back towards the edge of the path. "You're Ophelia, the girl with the Black Tear issues. And since the two of you are here, in that car, I'm going to assume it's because that daft twit Eddie has done something horrible to himself."

"What's your problem with Eddie?" Ophelia asked, apparently a bit incensed at the affronts.

"Problem? I don't have a problem with him, he's my best customer!" The Guardian chuckled heartily, moving...unusually quickly to put an arm around Ophelia's shoulders, pulling her closer than she was comfortable with. "Truth be told, I'm quite fond of him, reminds me of my own boys. But he's still a tosser who mistreats this poor exquisite car." He pushed away from her without a word, moving to inspect the vehicle in question again, brushing some of the quills out of it.

Ophelia gave Lita another confused look, shrugging her shoulders slightly at the creature's antics. Lita cleared her throat and spoke up. "Well...yes...Eddie is in some trouble and we need your help."

"Ah, see, I knew that much." The Guardian crouched at the rear of the vehicle, and, baffled, Ophelia moved to look at what he was doing...but even as she did, the man's voice came from _behind_ them. "So then why did you come to me?"

The women swirled around to see him standing on his ledge again, Ophelia looking back and forth between where he was and where he'd been a few times, while Lita just stared at him. Finally, though, she started to respond. "Um. Well...there was a Tainted Coil attack..."

"Ohhh, those nasty bastards again," the Guardian grumbled, crossing his arms, reaching one hand up to adjust his glasses. "What did they do?"

Lita bit her lip. "Well...they attacked us, and took Eddie...they were trying to do something, he said, like they were trying to make him into their new emperor. A Warfather, he said, it...it did something to him, he said it was like the thing set him on fire inside, but then it was over and the demons flipped out, saying it hadn't worked, they didn't get their new emperor, so we assumed everything was okay-,"

The Guardian nodded some, arms still crossed. "And now he's spittin' blood and screamin' in pain, ain't he?"

"How do you know?" Ophelia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah. That's one hell of a shame, it is." The Guardian shook his head somewhat, walking back over to the car and idly stroking a hand along it like it were an animal needing a pet. "Bloody damn demons, always screwing up nice things."

"So...what is it?" Lita asked. "And how do we make it stop?"

"Stop?" A brief look of confusion before understanding dawned. "Oh, you mean he's not already pretty much dead?"

"Well...no, he's with the Killmaster right now...it's keeping him going even though the injuries are...happening."

"Ah, good man. Your healer's talent is extraordinary. Unfortunately, it won't be enough." The Guardian let loose a weary sigh, his very posture slumped, the very picture of exhaustion all of a sudden. "All right, you want to know how you can help ol' Eddie?"

"Of course we do!" Ophelia said, stepping forward. "Anything to help him!"

"Well, here's what you're gonna have to do." He turned, leaning against the front of the car, looking Ophelia over, gesturing to the weapons at her sides. "Those two swords of your's are good and sharp, right?"

"Yes, of course..."

"All right. What you're gonna do is, you're gonna load back up, you're gonna drive back to him...and you're gonna take those swords, yeah? And you're gonna run him through, quick and painless as you can manage it. Through the heart should be fastest."

There was a second of complete silence before the Guardian's words completely computed for the two women...and when it did, the reactions were immediate and loud from both.

"WHAT?"

"How could you-"

"-we can't-"

"-can't help-"

"-bastard-"

"-won't do that!"

The Guardian winced, pinching the bridge of his nose as the women bellowed at him, then stood back up, holding up his hands as he walked along towards the edge of the path again. "Ladies, ladies, please. You sound terrible enough without tripping on each other."

"You have a sick sense of humor," Ophelia practically snarled. "Tell us how to help Eddie or else!"

The Guardian glanced back at her, raising an eyebrow. "Lady, I can jump down into that lava and be gone from here in a second. But that's not even the point. You want to help Eddie, then you better get back and put him out of his misery before it gets even worse."

Ophelia seemed ready to try and rip the creature apart, actually reaching for her swords, but Lita held a hand out to try and stop her. "Wait." She looked the Guardian over. "Why would you say that?"

He considered them a second. "Ah. I take it then that you two don't understand what's happened, do you?"

Lita shook her head again. "What do you mean?"

"Oh God. This is going to be fun." The Guardian turned away from them, actually taking off the pink glasses and polishing them on the front of his robes before putting them back on. "You know about the Coil and their hierarchy, I take it."

"Yeah, the nuns, the Warfathers, the...Overblessers? Those were the ones who...bred out the others on Doviculus's say so. All the demons sprung from those."

"Well, not quite all, but for the Coil, pretty damn near. The demons have a breeding mechanic that's utterly grotesque to humans, the way that _any_ of them can breed together...though they will always defer to a ruler in that." He turned to look back at them. "Eddie's not the first crossbreed there's ever been, you know. The years of demons enslaving and torturing humanity saw to that."

Ophelia seemed to have calmed herself somewhat, and that definitely gave her pause. "Then why have we never seen any others like him?"

"Because...there _are_ no others like him. Eddie is completely unique. You see, demons and humans, by all rights, shouldn't be able to breed together. The methods are completely different. The way demons spawn...well, it's disgusting, it is. They...are you really going to make me explain all this?"

Lita and Ophelia just looked at him, Ophelia crossing her arms. "Go on."

"Ugh, God. All right, don't say I didn't warn you. See, humans are two-sexed...men and women. You need one of each to make a baby, and the woman carries the baby and gives birth, yeah? Demons aren't that discerning. It takes two demons...and that's literally as far as it goes. The demon that's higher in rank impregnates the one that's lower, and they actively choose what offspring they'll make. That's why you see the same kinds of demons. Over the centuries, they've bred themselves to a point of only having the same few shapes over and over again, to the point that they literally can't conceive of anything else...in a few different ways."

"Okay...so what does that have to do with Eddie?"

"Well, the demons aren't stupid. They figured out that their race was stagnating fast. So even before Succoria was sent into the future, the demons started trying to figure out a way to introduce some diversity into their ranks. Seeing the humans, and how much difference there was between them, they thought hey, that's the ticket, we'll just breed with the humans and make them create new creatures for us." The Guardian shook his head, obviously somewhat grossed out by the discussion. "So...they started trying."

Ophelia nodded slowly, taking this in, starting to look a bit green in the face. "So...there were halflings even that far back?"

"If that's what you want to call the results." He moved to start idly brushing at the car again, still trying to clean it up. "None of the humans survived it. You see the way that demons give birth...I don't think I have to explain why they didn't."

The women traded another glance, and Lita felt a shudder travel up her back at the thought of a human being going through the disgusting "birth" that she'd seen the demons use. Even if a person could survive that, she doubted any would want to. "Okay..." she said finally, nodding for the Guardian to continue.

"Well...the offspring didn't do any better. Demons...don't recreate the way people do. Humans have birds and bees or whatever delightful little euphemism you folks have for it. When a demon breeds...the one creating the offspring sacrifices pieces of themselves...half of this organ, a tad of that muscle, a piece of that bone...all combining together and sent into that boil to be grown almost instantly into whatever shape the demon's thought up. That's why you see that the offspring create a healing aura for their parent...to repair the fact that the demon's literally given up huge chunks of itself to make them."

Lita was starting to get a nasty, nasty feeling about where this tale was going, and she could see Ophelia was thinking the same thing, but she forced herself to speak again. "So...what happened to the offspring?"

"Most of them were...let's say half-done. The demon and human halves just couldn't combine, so they'd usually end up with a pile of loose meat by the time it was over. The few times anything whole did come out of it, it was either dead on arrival or died screaming within a few minutes. The demons eventually gave up on that idea, and decided instead to send Succoria forward in time to regain the secrets of the Titans."

"Then...why is Eddie different?" Ophelia asked softly.

"Because the one thing the demons didn't try was using _themselves_ as the birthing parent. It never occurred to them that the method they were attempting was something only their birthing method could effectively do...combining bits from inside themselves...whether those bits were themselves or the...input of a human. So when Succoria and Riggnarok did...what they did...Succoria was able to join together parts of her body with the...offered part of Riggnarok...very similarly to the way a human mother would join the two human parts...and out Eddie came, as healthy as could be." He glanced up from his care of the vehicle. "You know, I really don't enjoy talking about this subject, I'd just like to say."

"Then...now the demons know how to create more hybrids..." Ophelia said, trying unsuccessfully not to show how horrified the thought made her.

"Well, yes, aside from one thing..." The Guardian held up a finger as he paced back to the edge of the road, apparently rather restless. "They know birthing Eddie killed Succoria, and she was the most powerful and fearsome of all of them. They don't want to give up their own lives unless on say-so of a leader...which they don't have. So at the moment, they're in a blind panic, trying to come up with a way to rebuild their hierarchy and get everything back to the way it should be."

"Then...what they've done to Eddie..." Lita asked, biting at her lip.

"The method you described? That's exactly what they would do to try and breed with humans...burn away their own flesh and force it into the victim to add in the demonic essence."

Ophelia couldn't stop her reaction any longer...turning away from the Guardian, gagging uselessly and letting out a weak sob as she did. Lita understood...and she wanted to be right there beside her, but she held firm. She was the queen of Bladehenge, she had to stay strong, no matter how strongly she wanted to break down as well. "Then...Eddie...Eddie is breeding a demon."

The Guardian raised his hands in what looked like a sympathetic shrug. "Afraid so, your majesty. My guess that the demons thought, since he's a halfling, they could use him for the diversity they desperately need. Unfortunately, the demons have never been able to figure out that human males of any sort can't do what human females can...or that human birth takes time. They're used to summoning a new child and it appearing there immediately, that when it didn't, the dumb bastards assumed they failed. So his demon half has reacted to the summon...and it's tearing loose parts of him to try and create a new demon...and it's not going to stop until the breeding completes."

"And...since Eddie's part human and can't birth the way they do...or at all...it can't."

"Why...why can't Killmaster's healing save him?" Ophelia asked, looking up from where she was leaned against the car, brushing her eyes clear as fast as she could. "If the demons can heal their birth parent from that-,"

"Because, love, he's the most talented healer up there...but he has his limits. People can still die under his care, if the damage comes too fast. What's happening now is just...nothing but warning pangs. When the process really accelerates, all healing will do is keep him suffering longer, because the damage won't stop coming if a birth can't be completed." The Guardian shook his head. "It's a damn shame for it to have to happen to such a good man, but...that's the way the world is. The only help you can offer now is going to be a fast, painless death."


End file.
